Delta has a Medic
by Ricky Rabankenz
Summary: Meet Natalie Wylde. Survivor of Zulu squad and now currently being assigned as Delta squad's medic. starts in Gears 2 and will continue until I find a decent place to stop. [OC x C. Carmine]
1. Chapter 1

Delta Has a Medic?

Chapter 1

A woman of average height stood before a COG officer waiting for her new squad assignment. She had jaw-length black hair with a streak of pink in the front. It was shaved on the right side and covered her left eye. She was one of the more well-endowed women, though you couldn't tell, due to the COG chest plate she was wearing. She had no sleeves to her uniform, seeing as the standard-issue forearm armor tended to get in the way when she was performing her duties as a combat medic and instead had black cloth wrapped around her forearms and wrists.

She had a lightly-tanned complexion and her face was thin with soft features aside from a long scar trailing down her right eye and ending above her lip. Her shoulder pads bore a red cross on each side and there was a larger one in the middle of her chest, replacing the normal COG emblem. Her pale-blue eyes took in every detail of the man before her and after a summary glance, deemed him unworthy of the time of day. Her name was Natalie Wylde and she was a combat medic, a Gear in the Coalition of Ordered Governments or simply known as the COG.

"You're being assigned to Delta squad, under Sgt. Fenix." The logistics officer informed Natalie as he double-checked the clipboard in his hands. "You should find them around the hospital, dismissed."

Natalie had just arrived at Jacinto less than three hours ago. Having been picked up by COG patrol during her attempt to make it back to the COG capitol after her squad had been wiped out by a locust ambush in which she was the only survivor. Shortly after arriving and being processed by COG command, she was sent to the armory in order to restock on ammo and then logistics to be reassigned.

'Seems eager to get rid of me.' Natalie thought to herself before offering a quick salute and a 'Thank you sir'. As she threw her duffel over her shoulder and grabbed her Lancer, she stopped briefly to look back at the assignment officer with one last question.

"Where's the hospital?"

The officer in question gave an annoyed sigh before gesturing towards the front door of the building they were located in.

"Out the door, hang a right. It's two buildings down on the right." He looked toward the next Gear in line before gesturing them forward. Natalie made her way through the crowded lobby to the front door and shouldered her way out into the open air where hundreds of Gears could be seen loading crates, marching in formation or just hanging about talking with fellow soldiers. As she turned right and began walking down the road she took in all the surrounding commotion and accidently bumped into another Gear, causing said gear to drop his lancer and duffel and almost fall on his ass if it wasn't for Natalie catching his shoulder and steadying him.

"Sorry bout that mate." She said as she helped him get his balance before grabbing his Lancer and handing it back to him after he re-shouldered his duffel bag.

"It's all good." The Gear replied cheerfully as he retook possession of his weapon. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where the hospital is, would you? I got assigned to Delta squad and the assignment officer told me where they were, just not how to get there."

"Ah, well you can just tag along with me. I got assigned to Delta as well so I'm on my way to meet up with em now." Natalie replied with a smile before gesturing with her head for him to follow.

"Oh thank god, I didn't want to make a bad first impression by showing up late." He sighed out. "I'm Carmine by the way, Ben Carmine."

"Natalie Wylde. Pleasure." Natalie responded. "So, you a new recruit?"

"Yeah, I just finished up basic a couple days ago." And it was pretty obvious too. Ben didn't move with the natural gait of a Gear used to the armor and the way he held his lancer simply screamed 'Rookie'. "What about you? How long have you been in?"

"It's been ten years for me. Joined when I was sixteen, five years after the war started." Natalie answered before spotting two Gears talking with a female officer. By her logic, an officer would know where Delta was. "Come on, we can ask that officer if she knows where Delta is."

"Good idea." Ben commented as they approached the group. "Excuse me, Ma'am?"

The three turned to look at Ban and Natalie before Ben continued.

"Do you know where we can find Delta Squad?"

"You're looking at 'em." One of the Gears, who was wearing a bandana stated in a gruff voice.

"Well, lucky break, I'd say. We've just been assigned to your squad." Natalie commented with a smile as she offered her hand out towards the Gear who had spoken. "Natalie Wylde, combat medic."

The Gear shook her hand and looked toward Ben, waiting for him to introduce himself.

"Ben Carmine, Sir." Ben stated as he tried to stand tall, but ended up dropping his Lancer again. The Gear simply shook his head while muttering something about rookies that Natalie couldn't quite catch, but it caused his two companions to smile and chuckle.

"First off, drop the 'Sir' shit, we ain't that polite here. I'm Sgt. Fenix and this is Dom, welcome to Delta squad." Fenix said while Dom shook Natalie's hand while Ben struggled to balance his Lancer and duffel which had slid off his shoulder when he bent down to retrieve his weapon. "We're going into the hospital. Carmine, link up with Alpha and patrol the perimeter. Wylde, you're coming in with us. See if you can make yourself useful in there."

"On it." Ben replied before running off to where Fenix had pointed.

"Come on." Fenix commanded before walking off with Dom while Natalie followed behind. Upon entering the hospital, Natalie immediately rushed off to where a group of wounded Gears were sitting around waiting for treatment. Pulling out her medical kit, she immediately got to work on the worst looking one.

"Where's it hurt and how bad?" Natalie asked the Gear.

"I took some shrapnel in the leg, I'll live, but it hurts like a bitch." The gear replied while gesturing to his right thigh where bandages were wrapped around.

"Alright, let's take a look." As Natalie finished up with the Gear's leg, she was about to move on to the next when the lights in the building flickered off for a few seconds before coming back on. Reaching up to her TAC/COM, she keyed her mic and called into Sgt. Fenix.

"Sgt. Fenix, this is Wylde, what just happened?"

"Got reports of a Locust raid inbound. Get outside and link up with Carmine. They're gonna need the extra firepower out there. We'll link up with you once we've cleared the hospital." Fenix replied over the radio.

"Copy that, Sgt. En route." Natalie packed up her gear and pulled her Lancer off her back before heading out the front door and turning in the direction that Carmine had run off earlier. "Carmine, what's your position? I'm en route to provide support."

"We're at the east barricade, Locust are hitting us hard! We have multiple wounded, no casualties yet, but I don't think that'll be the case for long." Carmine shouted over the sound of gunfire on his side of the net.

"Solid copy, ETA one mike!" Natalie sprinted down the street heading toward the sound of gunfire and screaming. It wasn't long before she spotted Carmine taking cover behind a jersey barrier and taking pot shots with his Lancer. The Gears were getting hammered and it seemed as though the Locust were going to breakthrough any minute now. Sliding into cover beside Carmine, Natalie poked her head out of cover quickly to try and spot the enemy locations. A few bullets impacting the cover next to her face forced her back behind the cement barrier with Carmine.

"We're gonna get overrun if we don't get some support up her fast!" Natalie shouted as she blind-fired over the barrier in the general direction of the Locust.

"The King Ravens are busy with the enemy Reavers and the Centaurs are taking a pounding on the west! We're on our own for now!" A random Gear shouted from the barrier to the right. "I'm Jace, by the way!"

"Fuck, we can't hold out much longer without support and those Gears are gonna bleed out if I can't get to 'em!" Natalie stowed her Lancer on her back before turning to Carmine. "When I say 'now', I need you to lay down a wall of lead! I'm gonna try and get to the wounded up there!"

"But there isn't any cover out there, you'll be a sitting duck!" Carmine warned as he poked his head out to see where the wounded had fallen. The closest Gear was lying in the middle of the road with no cover around him. He was trying to crawl to a barrier about fifteen feet away, but he was bleeding out fast from a gunshot to the side.

"Don't worry about me, just cover me!" Natalie shouted while preparing to sprint toward the Gear. "NOW!"

Carmine stood from his cover and began firing rounds toward the Locust in a sweeping motion. Natalie bolted from her cover and made a beeline for the wounded Gear with her snub pistol drawn. She slid to a stop next to the Gear and rolled him onto his back before grabbing the back of his collar. "I'm gonna get you to cover, but I need you to use that weapon soldier. Keep me covered, deal?"

"Just get me the hell outta here, I'll worry about the grubs!" He shouted as she began dragging him toward the barrier he'd been trying to crawl to, firing at the Locust with her pistol as she went. After a heart-pounding fifteen seconds, she had managed to get the Gear into cover and began pulling his chest plate off in order to get to his wound.

"You're gonna be fine, no organs were hit. I'm gonna patch you up and stop the bleeding and you'll be good to go." The Gear gave a visible sigh of relief when he heard that he'd survive.

"Thanks Doc, I didn't feel like dying today." He chuckled morbidly.

As she finished applying the quick-clot and bandages, she gave him a slap on the shoulder and began looking for the next wounded. The more Gears she could get back in the fight, the better her odds of surviving were. She called over to Carmine and informed him to do the same thing upon her command. Receiving a nod of acknowledgment, she prepared herself for her next suicide run.

"NOW!" Taking off toward the next Gear, Natalie stayed low since she'd be running through her allies lines of fire. She reached the Gear quickly and thankfully, he was better off than the last one with no bleeding injuries. Grabbing him by the collar, Natalie proceeded to drag him to the nearest cover which happened to be a burnt out car. Propping the Gear up against the side of the car, she began to try and rouse the dazed Gear by giving him a few slaps to the side of the head. With a groan, the Gear finally came to.

"Grab your gun and fight, we ain't outta the woods yet!" Natalie ordered while pushing the Gears Lancer into his hands. She looked back into the street and saw that the other Gear had managed to pull himself into cover and, locking eyes with her, gave her a thumbs up, indicating that he was fine. Replying with a thumbs up of her own, Natalie holstered her pistol and drew her Lancer.

"Carmine, Wylde, what's your status?" Fenix called over the TAC/COM.

"We're holding, but barely. Alpha is back in the fight, but Locust outnumber us. We need support ASAP!" Natalie responded as she blind-fired over the hood of the car.

"Acknowledged, we're in route to your location. Hold out for a little longer, we'll be there in two."

"Affirmative, we'll save a couple for ya." Natalie dropped her hand from her ear-piece. "Support inbound, two mikes!"

"REAVER!" The Gear next to her called out just before the massive creature slammed into the road in front of them.

"Concentrate fire, bring it down!" Jace ordered as they all started firing upon the Reaver. The Reaver turned toward where the shout came from and fired a rocket, forcing Jace to dive from cover. The barrier he'd been hiding behind erupted in a geyser of rock and flame as the rocket decimated the concrete. He scrambled to his feet and sprinted to where Carmine was taking cover, but halfway there, a bullet tore through his leg causing him to curse and fall face first five feet from Carmine's cover. Carmine tried to reach out to him, but fire from the remaining Locust prevented him from reaching him.

"Sgt. Fenix, we need you here NOW!" Natalie shouted into her com. "We have a Reaver at our location and it's tearing us apart. Locust are advancing freely. We're gonna get overrun!"

"We're almost there, just keep it together!" Fenix replied. Natalie swore as she saw the Reaver baring down upon the wounded Jace. Thinking quickly she saw the grenade on her cover-buddy's armor and snatched it from him.

"What are you doing?" He called out as he saw her lining up with the Reaver.

"Something really stupid!" Natalie took off, grenade in one hand and pistol in the other.

"No, wait!" The gear called in an attempt to stop her, but she was already sprinting out of cover. She made a beeline for the side of the Reaver, her heart pounding as she crossed the open road, bullets impacting the ground around her feet. Tunnel-vision set in as her focus zeroed in on her target.

As she got within five feet of the creature, she planted both her feet together and with every ounce of strength she could muster, she jumped. Everything moved in slow motion for her, the only sound she could process was her breathing. Breathe in: her arm swung forward, priming its deadly payload. Breathe out: she extended the spikes in the grenade as it collided with the flesh of the Reaver. In: she released the grenade as she continued her trajectory beneath it. Out: her feet hit the ground and she tucked into a forward roll. In: she stood up and sprinted to the nearest cover, barely aware of the Gear that was waving her over. Out: she registered a heavy impact on her shoulder, throwing off her balance. In: she dove forward past the Gear into cover, slamming her back against the concrete barrier.

"Everybody get down!" Carmine yelled as he finally managed to haul Jace behind cover while Natalie had distracted the Locust and Reaver. As the Gears ducked below the cover of their barriers, the Reaver turned to face a new target. Just as it lined up another shot, the grenade planted in its side went off. The explosion forced the Reaver to buck to the right, collapsing onto the ground and giving a few final death-spasms before detonating in an even greater explosion.

"Reaver's down, here's our chance!" Carmine called out as he rose from cover along with Natalie and the Gears of Alpha. The Locust weren't prepared for the Gears to take the offensive and were quickly beginning to be pushed back.

"ADVANCE!" Natalie shouted as she leapt over her cover and fired into the retreating forms of the Locust. Carmine and Alpha squad quickly joined in and together they pushed forward, retaking lost ground and dropping Locust like flies.

"That's right you bastards! Run!" Natalie shouted as she gunned down a fleeing grub. As the last Locust Drone disappeared from sight, Natalie lowered her Lancer and took a ragged breath. The adrenaline from the battle fading quickly and letting her feel just how tired she was, but she wasn't done yet. Jace still had a hole through his leg that needed to be patched up. As she turned around, she was met with the sight of both Dom and Sgt. Fenix jogging up to them.

"What happened, I thought you were being overrun." Fenix questioned as he lowered his Lancer to his side and looked around the battlefield.

"We almost were." Delta turned to see Jace supporting himself on the barrier he'd been behind. "If that crazy ass medic you sent us hadn't done what she did, shit, we'd probably all be dead."

Natalie quickly jogged over to him in order to patch up his wound, helping him to sit on the barrier before removing the armor on his legs and pushing his pants leg up. The remainder of Delta walked over to stand near when Fenix asked.

"What do you mean? What'd she do?"

"Oh man, it was awesome!" Carmine exclaimed as he began retelling what Natalie had done during the fight. "First off, she runs out in the open in order to save all of Alpha, except Jace. Then after she gets everyone patched up and into cover, she charges a Reaver by herself and sticks it with a grenade! It was freaking awesome!"

Natalie doesn't even acknowledge Carmine's recounting of events as she methodically cleans and bandages Jace's wound. Pulling his pant leg back over the wound she stands up before keying her TAC/COM.

"Control, Delta, come in."

"Go ahead Delta." Anya's answered over the net.

"Be advised, the East barrier requires a relief squad. Alpha is need of continued medical care and are deemed unfit to perform current duties until cleared by medical staff." Natalie continued as she packed her med gear into their respective pouches.

"Acknowledged Delta. Relief squad is inbound and will assume post in three mikes."

"Solid copy, Control. Delta out." Natalie turned to look at Delta and Jace who were all just watching her, waiting for her to finish.

"You know, I don't need to see a doctor." Jace commented. "I'll be fine."

He went to stand up until Natalie planted a hand firmly upon his chest plate and kept him from moving.

"You're going to the hospital to have that wound properly treated, mate. Even if that means I have to drag you there myself." Natalie answered with a smirk.

"If Jace says he's fine, then-" Fenix began, only for Natalie to cut him off.

"Sgt. Fenix, I understand that during a combat situation, your word is law, but right now, we're not in combat and this is a medical situation. Seeing as I'm the only medic in the immediate area." She paused to look him straight in the eye with an unwavering gaze. "My word is law and I will not allow a fellow Gear to potentially worsen a simple bullet wound because he was too 'Macho' to go to the fucking hospital."

Fenix stood there with his mouth slightly open and a confused glint in his eyes. Carmine simply looked between the two, fearing that Natalie was about to get her ass chewed out for interrupting Sgt. Fenix. Dom and Jace, however, were doing everything they could to hold back the building laughter. After a moment of awkward silence, it finally became too much for Dom and Jace.

"Haha, damn Marcus, she schooled you good." Jace laughed out as he bent forward clutching his sides.

"Never thought I'd see the day that Marcus got shut down, but here it is." Dom added in as he gave Fenix a slap on the back. "She's definitely Delta material, man."

Marcus finally regained his senses and for the briefest moment, a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "You'll fit in just fine, Wylde. You too Carmine."

Carmine looked over at Natalie and gave her a thumbs up and receiving a smile and nod in return.

"Thanks Sgt." Natalie responded with a gracious nod of her head.

"It's Marcus. I think you two have earned the right." Marcus replied while turning away. "Let's go Delta. We got a mission brief in thirty minutes and I don't wanna have to run there. Jace, get yourself to the hospital ASAP."

As Marcus turned away and walked off with Dom following, Natalie turned back to Jace.

"Have one of your Gears help you to the hospital. Try to put as little pressure on your leg as possible until after you've been checked out. Understood?" Natalie still maintained her sideways smirk, but her tone left absolutely no room for discussion. Jace would obey or else.

"Yeah, I got it. Thanks doc." Jace replied as he waved one of his squad over. Natalie turned to Carmine and gestured with her head, adding a quick 'come on' before following after Dom and Marcus. Carmine jogged to catch up with her until they were walking side-by-side.

"That was really amazing." Carmine praised after a moment of silence.

"Hmm?"

"What you did back there." He explained. "It was amazing."

"More like stupid, but thanks."

"It may have been stupid, but if it hadn't been for you, there's no way we'd have survived that." Carmine countered. "And I won't lie, I was scared shitless until I saw you."

"What do you mean?" Natalie asked while glancing at the Gear walking beside her.

"Well." Carmine fidgeted a bit and rubbed the back of his neck. "We were caught completely by surprise and the Locust were advancing pretty quickly, but then you showed up and without even batting an eye, you were charging out into the open to rescue those Gears that had fallen. It gave me hope, I guess. I mean, I knew those Gears were still alive and that they'd probably die if they were left out there, but I was so scared for my own life that I didn't even think about rescuing them and then you showed up and ran out to them with no hesitation, risking your life for people you didn't know."

"Ben." Natalie started, causing Carmine to look at her. "I don't want you to think I wasn't scared, cause trust me, I was. Hell, it'd be stupid not to be scared, but I knew that I had to do something or else the Locust would have broken through and others would have been in danger."

Carmine nodded his head as Natalie talked. His respect for the combat medic quickly growing as she explained the reasons she did everything and helped him to feel better about being scared. As they fell into a comfortable silence, they both surveyed the damage to Jacinto. Locust bodies littered the road, mixed in with a couple of dead Gears here and there, the wounded already having been taken to the hospital. The COG had come through the attack with surprisingly few casualties, but Natalie wasn't foolish enough to believe that this would be the case if the Locust decided to do another raid. The crackling of their TAC/COMs halted the thought of any further chit chat.

"Carmine, Wylde, meet us at Command. Briefing starts in ten." Marcus ordered over the radio.

"Understood, we're three minutes out." Carmine replied.

Natalie and Carmine met up with Dom and Marcus in front of the main gate into the command center. Giving quick nods in greeting, Delta proceeded through the gate and up the large staircase that lead into the COG command center. The COG officer that had been talking with Dom and Marcus when Natalie and Carmine had first shown up was waiting for them inside the doors.

"Marcus, Dom." She nodded her head and gave a friendly smile to the two members of Delta before turning her attention to the other two. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. Anya Stroud, mission coordinator and support for squads Alpha through Fox."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am. I'm Ben Carmine." Carmine greeted while offering his hand for her to shake.

"Natalie Wylde, medic."

"So you're the one who benched Alpha." Anya stated with a smile. "But on to more important things, Chairman Prescott and Colonel Hoffman will be conducting the mission brief. It's being held in the amphitheater in order to accommodate the other squads."

"Any idea what the mission's gonna be." Carmine asked as Anya began leading them through the massive building where officers and Gears were running back and forth carrying files, equipment or relaying orders to squads in the field.

"We're taking the fight to the Locust." Marcus answered as he weaved through the commotion of Command. "No more questions, Hoffman'll explain everything during the brief."

Two hours later

Natalie was sitting on her cot in the barracks wearing a pair of spandex shorts and a crimson tank top that showed off her belly, her armor removed and piled neatly at the foot of her bed. Her weapons tucked safely under her cot, aside from her snub pistol which was hidden under her pillow as most Gears do. Carmine had taken the bunk across from her and the two had set up a wooden crate between them in order to play cards. Dom and Marcus had left after the briefing to meet up with two prior members of Delta in order to 'catch up'. Carmine had removed his armor as well and was now sitting, facing their makeshift table wearing his pants and a black tank top.

He had short brown hair, cut to be in compliance with COG regulations and bright green eyes that went well with his paler complexion. He was young, like really young. He honestly didn't even look old enough to join, but after Natalie had called him out on his age, he'd shown her his ID and sure enough, he was eighteen.

"What the fuck!" Natalie complained as Ben beat her for the fifth time in a row. "How the fuck are you so good at this?"

"I grew up with three older brothers in the middle of nowhere. Cards was one of the best ways to stay entertained." Carmine explained with a chuckle as he reshuffled the deck and began dealing the cards.

"Whatever. At least I was smart enough to decline strip poker. Otherwise I'd be giving the whole barracks a peep show." Natalie huffed out as she picked up the cards she'd been dealt.

"You know I was joking when I suggested that, right?" Ben asked as he arranged his cards in his hand.

"I know." Natalie replied. "But I also know that you were only half joking."

Ben visibly blushed at that, the only emotion he'd ever shown during their past five games. Coughing slightly, he threw a few more chips onto the table to raise the bet. Nat matched his bet and raised him, she had some damn good cards and was confident she'd win this round. After a few more bets, she finally laid her cards on the table.

"Three aces, beat that!" Carmine smirked before laying his cards down.

"Royal flush." He began sliding the poker chips toward himself with a smug grin plastered on his face.

"Fuck you." Natalie mumbled as she pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her waistband. "I'm gonna go smoke and when I get back, we're playing chess."

"Awesome, I love chess." Carmine replied as he started packing up the cards and poker chips. Natalie stood from her cot and slipped her bare feet into her COG boots before heading outside. It was only seven at night, but already the sky was dark and the stars were starting to shine. Sitting down at a table just outside the barracks entrance, she pulled out a cigarette and lighter.

"Mind if I join you."

Natalie turned around to the entrance where she saw a large man with long, jet-black dreads and dark brown eyes. His skin was the color of chocolate and he had a grin on his face as he sat down across from her, pulling out his own pack before realizing that he'd forgotten his lighter.

"Here." Natalie held out her lighter in order to light the man's cigarette before placing it back into her pack and taking a slow drag from her cig.

"Thanks." He said as he inhaled deeply of the tobacco.

"No worries, we all forget our lighter eventually."

"Not for the light." Natalie looked at him in slight confusion. "I'm thanking you for saving my ass today."

Natalie's eyes went wide in realization before a smile made its way onto her face.

"We're you the one who got shot in the side of the one who was knocked out?" She asked

The Gear pulled up his shirt to reveal bandages wrapped around his torso.

"The one who got shot. Name's Jackson, Tyler Jackson and you gave me the chance to see my wife and kid again. So seriously, thank you."

"I was just doing my job, but I'm glad you'll get the chance to see your family again." Natalie smiled before taking another drag of her cigarette. The two Gears continued with idle conversation until Natalie finished her cigarette and bid Jackson a good night. Returning to her cot, she sat down to find that Carmine had already set up the chess board and positioned it so that he could be black.

"Ready to play?" He asked with a smug grin on his face.

"I swear, if you turn out to be a chess genius as well, I'm gonna punch you. Hard." She growled out as she took her seat and made her first move.

Twenty minutes later

"Fuck you, fuck this game and fuck my life!" Natalie yelled as she lost to Ben. Rising from her cot, she leaned over the table and punched him in the shoulder causing him to shift back and laugh as he rubbed his arm.

"Hey, you said you'd only hit me if I was a chess genius." He laughed out.

"Fuck that, from now on, I'm just going to hit you every time you beat me." Natalie grumbled as she began putting the chess set back into its box.

"You're the one that suggested we play anything in the first place, so quit your griping." He chided as he lay back on his cot. Natalie had already walked off to return the board game to its spot on the barrack's game shelf.

"Never would've suggested it if I'd known you were unbeatable." Natalie returned the game to its shelf and turned around to see a man who resembled Ben in looks, but was of a larger, more muscled build and with shaggy, brown hair, talking to him and laughing. The two seemed as if they knew each other and judging from appearances, she guessed that this may be one of his brothers. Approaching the two, she took her seat back on her cot before softly clearing her throat. Causing the two men to look at her.

"Well, speak of the devil. I was just about to tell my brother, Clayton about you." Ben exclaimed as he gestured towards Clayton. Clayton however was just staring at Natalie, his eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.

"Umm, are you alright?" Natalie asked after a few moments of silence in which Clayton just continued to stare at her. Finally, Ben nudged him in the side and Clayton shook his head before smiling and offering his hand to her.

"Clayton Carmine, at your service."

"Natalie Wylde, pleasure."

"Oh, believe me, the pleasure is all mine." Clayton replied before giving her hand a kiss.

"Well aren't you the smooth one." Natalie blushed as Clayton gave her a wide grin and held her hand for just a fraction longer than someone who wasn't interested would. The two Gears simply looked at each other, one grinning and one blushing softly.

"Ahem, should I give you two some space?" Clayton and Natalie instantly regained their senses as Ben started chuckling at the two. "Clayton here is on Echo squad, though he's been trying to transfer over to Delta. Something about honoring Anthony's memory, but now that I'm on Delta he won't need to transfer."

"True, but now I have a different reason to wanna transfer." Clayton glanced at Natalie as he said this and winked before clapping his brother on the shoulder and telling him that they should grab something to eat next time they both had some down time. "Natalie, maybe I'll get to see you again soon."

"I look forward to it." Natalie replied with a soft smile and a light blush on her cheeks. She watched as Clayton walked away before she heard chuckling coming from in front of her. Looking towards Ben, she instantly adopted a scowl before growling out in a playful tone.

"Not a single word." Ben simply raised his hands in defeat before lying back on his cot and wishing her a good night. Natalie returned the well wishes as she too laid back on her cot, a warm smile gracing her face, but then thoughts of her previous squad entered her mind and she lost her smile. Shivering as the faces of her squad mates flashed across her eyes, she rolled onto her side and curled herself into a ball, silently wishing the images would go away.

'No!' She thought. 'There was nothing I could do, I tried my best and it wasn't enough. I'll get better and I'll make sure it never happens again.'

With a new sense of calm running through her, she let out a final sigh before allowing herself to drift to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next day (morning)

"How come we never have anyone on the guns?" Natalie asked as Delta rode KR nine-zero-seven toward Landown. "I mean, if we could get attacked at any moment by Nemacyst and Reavers, wouldn't it be smarter to have both guns up."

"That's...actually a good question." Dom stated after a moment of thought.

Delta fell into a silence as they all pondered why no one ever manned the two door guns of the KR units. After a couple minutes, Carmine decided to break the silence.

"So why Landown, Sarge." He asked before gesturing toward Jacinto. "Why not drill down here."

"Jacinto is the one place the grubs can't dig through and Landown is the perfect place to hit them on their own turf." Marcus answered.

"Heard there's a shit load of grubs there, Sarge." Carmine countered.

Dom and Marcus just smirked before Marcus replied.

"More like ten shit loads."

The rest of the flight was spent in silence as Delta checked over their gear and prepared themselves for the coming day.

"Alright Delta, we're about to land!" Marcus shouted over the noise of the KR. "Once we're there we'll load up on one of the Rigs and provide security until it gets to Landown. When we get to the drill site, we'll have to split into two's. Wylde, Carmine, you'll be riding down together. If we get separated, stay with your lift. Dom and I will come to you. Only leave your DZ if there's no other choice, understood?"

"Got it Sarge." Carmine answered as he fumbled with the scope on his Longshot.

"No promises chief, if I see a Gear that needs help, I can't just stand by." Natalie replied as she checked the supplies in her med pouches.

"God damn medics." Marcus muttered as Dom chuckled. "Alright, same as before, but if you see a Gear within reasonable distance, you're authorized to provide assistance."

"Roger that."

Dom took out a photo and stared at it briefly, Natalie was able to catch a glimpse of the photo. It was Dom and who she assumed was his wife.

"That your wife?" Natalie asked as Dom tucked the photo back into a slot in his armor.

"Her name's Maria." Dom answered.

"She's beautiful. How long have you been married?"

"Almost 20 years." Dom replied solemnly. "I haven't seen her in over 12."

"Fuck, Dom. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean...I just...I'm sorry." Natalie mumbled after she'd realized that Dom had lost his wife.

"Look, don't worry about it, Okay? It doesn't concern you." Dom stated with finality.

As the King Raven touched down, Delta hopped off and Marcus began talking with their Rig driver. Carmine stayed in the back with Natalie and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder after seeing her disheartened look.

"There's no way you could have known." Ben started. "Don't beat yourself up over it."

Natalie just gave him a small smile before turning back to the rest of the squad. Marcus had finished up his conversation with the Rig driver and was now moving toward the massive vehicle that would carry them to Landown.

"Let's move, Delta!" Marcus called out as he looked back and saw Wylde and Carmine still standing next to the KR. As Delta boarded the Rig behind Dizzy, Marcus gestured toward the mounted Gatling gun above the cab.

"Wylde, I want you on the gun, do not get off unless I tell you to. Understood."

"Understood, Marcus." Natalie replied as she walked up the short ramp to handle the gun.

"Carmine, watch the cliffs ahead. We don't want any surprises from above."

"Roger, Sarge!" Exclaimed Carmine as he stood up front by the railing and began scanning the cliffs with his Longshot.

As the Rig began to move along with the rest of the assault force, Wylde listened in on the conversation between Dizzy and another Rig driver while Carmine laid his Longshot across his lap and opted to just use the built in zoom function in his helmet. Dom and Marcus were standing in the middle of the Rig's platform conversing when a voice came over Delta's TAC/COM.

"Hey Marcus, we heard you got some fresh meat for the grinder. How's babysitting the kids going?"

"It's just fine, Baird. Though one of them's a medic." Marcus answered as he glanced up at Wylde who gave him a look of mock offense by pouting and placing a hand over her heart.

"Ouch, Command must really hate you if they gave you one of them. Anyways, we're on the Rig just below you. We'll see you in Landown."

"Yeah, be safe out there." Marcus ended the transmission as he walked toward the railing that looked over the valley and saw Baird waving to him from one of the Rigs. Giving a quick wave of his own, he walked back toward the front to keep watch when Wylde called out.

"INCOMING NEMACYST!" Weapons fire erupted from the Rigs and KR units as they tried to take out the swarm of Nemacyst that were heading straight for the assault force. Most were dispatched quickly, but the sheer number of them meant that a few made it through to the Rigs.

"Oh shit, we got Reavers!" Carmine called out before the distinct sound of a Longshot rang out across the Rig. "It looks like 12 Reavers inbound."

"Wylde, Carmine, focus on the Reavers! Dom and I will worry about the Nemacyst!" Marcus commanded as he began firing into the sky. The two veteran Gears working like well-oiled machines as they took out any Nemacyst that looked as though it were heading toward their Rig or as Dizzy kept calling it, 'Betty'.

"Fuck, a Reaver just took out the Rig ahead of us!" Wylde shouted as she fended off any Reaver stupid enough to go after Betty. "Dizzy, I hope you know some fancy driving, cause we just became a prime target!"

"Now you just sit back and keep them Reavers off ol' Betty. I'll worry bout the drivin." Dizzy replied as he maneuvered Betty around obstacles on the narrow road they were on.

"It looks like the Reavers are pulling back, Sarge!" Carmine called out as he watched the few remaining Reavers disappear over the cliffs.

"Everyone, look out for E-holes, grubs are probably gonna try and finish the job with a ground attack." Marcus commanded as he took cover by the railings on the left side.

"I'm starting to feel really unwelcome here, Marcus." Dom joked as he covered up by Carmine. "You'd think they didn't like us or something."

"Hey, Marcus. You think I could borrow that medic for a second?" Baird asked over the TAC/COM. Before Marcus could answer, Natalie had already keyed her mic.

"What are the injuries?"

"He took some shrapnel to the side, but there's more blood than there should be. We're applying pressure and trying to bandage him up, but we've had no luck so far."

"Okay, I need to know exactly where the entry wounds are and if there are any exit wounds." As Natalie became more and more focused on Baird's situation, Marcus tapped her on the shoulder and motioned for her to get off the Gatling gun and head to the deck.

"He's got three entry wounds. One in his upper left thigh, another to the left of his stomach, that's the one that's bleeding most and the last one is between the second and third rib on his left side."

"Okay, the stomach wound, is the exit wound bleeding more than the entry wound?" Wylde asked as she tried to picture the injuries in her head.

"Yeah."

"His kidney's been hit. Do you have any Quik-Clot?" Natalie opened the hatch of the driver's cab and went to the wall mounted first-aid kit.

"Negative. All we have are bandages." Baird replied.

"Check the first-aid kit in the cab, there should be a packet in there." Natalie instructed as she hoped that the two first-aid kits were identical.

"I got it."

"Perfect, pour three quarters of the packet onto his exit wound and then pour the rest on the entry wound. Once it stops bleeding, bandage him up and put him in the cab with your driver. He won't be fighting for a while."

"Alright, thanks, doc."

"Anytime." As Natalie finished up with Baird, she walked back up the ramp and took the Gatling gun back from Marcus.

"Good job, Wylde."

"Thanks Fenix." As Natalie took the handles of the gun, she looked out and saw that they were approaching a steep decline with some old ruins at the bottom. As the Rig began its descent, a loud 'thunk' was heard.

"Shit, that don't sound good. Hold on, Delta!" Dizzy warned as the Rig began rolling down at an unsafe speed. Natalie crouched down and braced herself against the railing in front of the Gatling gun just before Betty came to a jarring stop at the bottom of the hill.

"Fuck, that hurt." Carmine mumbled as he shook his head, trying to clear his vision. Dizzy came jogging out of the cab a moment later, headed toward the ladder hatch.

"Cover me while I fix up Betty."

"Alright, you heard him, Delta. Dom, you're with me. Wylde, stay up on that gun, Carmine, provide sniper support from up here."

As Dom and Marcus descended the ladder, Natalie retook her position on the Gatling gun. Looking out over the terrain her eyes were immediately drawn to a chunk of earth that had suddenly bulged up.

"E-hole, behind the Ruins!" She shouted as she began spinning up the gun.

"Get to cover, Delta! Keep the grubs away from the Rig!" Marcus ordered as he and Dom took off toward the ruins. Natalie began unleashing a wall of lead at the Emergence Hole while Carmine waited for the first grub to climb out. He didn't have to wait long, as soon as a grub had pulled itself over the lip of the hole, a loud 'crack' sounded out and the grub's head exploded before its body fell back into the hole.

"Headshot, motherfucker!" Carmine cheered as he loaded another round into the Longshot's chamber.

"Good work, Carmine." Marcus called over the radio. "Wylde, keep em pinned down."

"You got it, Fenix!" Natalie replied as she continued to sweep the Gatling along the cover the Locust had hidden themselves behind.

"Marcus, we're coming to assist, just hang on!" Baird called out over the net.

"Shit, E-hole on the ridge!" Carmine shouted as he took the head off another grub.

"Wylde, shift fire!" Marcus ordered.

"Shifting fire!"

"Fuck, another grub-hole!" Dom exclaimed as more grubs began to pour out around the area.

"Baird, we could really use that assist right about now!" Marcus growled over the radio. As if waiting for the invitation, two Rigs broke through the tree line on Delta's left and began pouring down fire upon the now out-flanked grubs.

"One assist as ordered." Baird exclaimed over the net.

"Betty's all fixed up, get back here so we can get the fuck out!" Dizzy shouted while ascending the ladder and running back to the cab. Natalie continued to lay down suppressive fire as Dom and Marcus sprinted back to the Rig.

"Alright, Dizzy, let's get the hell out of here!" Marcus yelled after closing the ladder hatch behind Dom.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Dizzy replied as the Rig took off, crushing Locust beneath its massive tires. Delta continued to lay down suppressive fire as they passed by until the Locust were no longer in their sights. As the adrenaline from the battle wore off, Natalie pulled out her cigarettes from behind her chest plate and lit one up. Taking a deep inhale of the nerve-calming tobacco.

"You know those things will kill you, right?" Dom questioned as he walked up the ramp and stood beside her. Natalie just gave him a dead panned expression as she ashed her cigarette over the railing.

"Seriously?" Natalie asked as she took another drag and exhaled. "We throw ourselves into brutal combat almost on a daily basis and you're worried that smoking is gonna kill me?"

"Just saying it'd be pretty stupid to survive the war just to die of lung cancer." Countered Dom as he leaned forward onto the railing. "Look, about how I acted earlier, after you asked about Maria."

"Hey, say no more, I was out of place asking you about her. We don't even know each other so seriously, don't worry." Natalie stated with a look of understanding. "Besides, I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

Dom gave a slight chuckle before standing up and smiling at Natalie.

"You'll fit right in with Delta, just don't get yourself killed too quickly."

"No promises there. I'm a medic, remember? It's a workplace hazard." Natalie responded before flicking her finished cigarette off the side of the Rig and taking up the Gatling gun again. Dom descended the ramp and made his way over to Carmine, where the two began talking about Ben's older brother Anthony, whom Dom had served with. Feeling that it would be rude to eavesdrop, Natalie tuned her TAC/COM into the KR frequency and listened as the pilots talked and called out anything they saw.

Two hours later

After a massive battle and losing a few more Rigs, the assault force had finally reached the drill site. Dizzy was at the back of the Rig preparing the Grind lifts for deployment while Marcus was giving last orders to Delta as well as Tai who had joined up with them after his Rig had been blown up along with the rest of his squad.

"Alright, Delta. This is it, The Hollow is Locust territory and you can bet they won't give it up easy. So no matter what, be on guard. There's no telling what kind of shit they got waiting for us down there. Communications will most likely be down after we get there, so we'll have to rely on short-wave. We all know our orders, now let's go kill some grubs."

There were no cheers as Delta moved to the Grind lifts, just solemn silence. They were about to be in enemy territory, nothing else needed to be said.

"Alright, fellas, lifts are ready to go. Hop in and I'll take care of the rest." Dizzy announced before Delta began moving toward the lifts. "Wylde, I'd recommend you take that first-aid kit with ya, I ain't much of a bettin man, but I figure the more ya got the better off you'll be."

Natalie glanced at Marcus, receiving a silent nod of permission before jogging into the cab and pulling the supplies out of the first-aid kit and stuffing them into her pouches.

"What the hell is that thing?" Dizzy yelled as an explosion sounded off. Natalie poked her head out of the cab of the Rig and saw a Locust with red armor and a double sided staff standing in front of a blown up Centaur.

"Wylde, get your ass moving, we need to go NOW!" Marcus yelled from his spot in the lift.

"I've almost got everything, just give me a second!" Natalie replied as she began stuffing the items into her pouches before running toward the lifts. Before she could make it halfway across the deck, the Locust with the staff landed in front of her and swiped at her with his staff. Now that she was closer to it, she could see that it had chainsaws on both ends. Ducking below the swipe, she pulled out her sidearm and fired three rounds towards it, but the locust had spun out of the way. Natalie attempted to run toward the lifts again until a heavy kick connected with her side and sent her flying into the railing of the Rig.

"WYLDE!" Marcus shouted from his lift. Natalie looked over to him, seeing that, both he and Dom were struggling to release themselves from the restraints, but the doors of the lift were already closing. Dizzy came to her rescue as well as Tai and Carmine. Dizzy attacked from the front, firing his Lancer at the Locust, but just like it had done with Natalie, it spun out of the way before kicking Tai over the edge of the Rig. Natalie heard the lift that Dom and Marcus were on start up before being launched into the ground below them, leaving herself, Dizzy and Carmine to deal with the staff-wielding grub.

"Get the hell off Betty, you ugly son-of-a-bitch!" Dizzy shouted as he swiped at the Locust with his chainsaw bayonet. Carmine had moved over to Natalie and helped her to her feet before joining into the fight against the grub. The Locust Spartan-kicked Dizzy in the chest after his failed swipe and launched him toward the front of the Rig, Carmine began firing at the Locust on full-auto, forcing the Locust to doge all over until jumping right up to Carmine and grabbing him by the throat.

"Hrgk!" Carmine grunted as he was lifted into the air by the grub, Natalie had now drawn her own lancer and charged toward the grub. Revving her chainsaw bayonet, she jumped into the air and brought it down onto the Locust's outstretched arm, severing it at the elbow and releasing Carmine. The Locust released a terrible shriek as it jumped away from the Gears and hopped over the railing.

"Thanks, Nat." Carmine panted out as he regained his breath.

"Don't mention it." Natalie replied as she ran over to Dizzy and helped him to his feet. She ran over to the edge of the Rig to look for Tai, but as she glanced over the edge, all she saw was ground and no Tai.

"Come on, we gotta get you into the Hollow 'fore anymore of them ugly-ass grubs show up." Dizzy called as he ran past and began setting up the next lift. Natalie and Carmine boarded the Grind lift and locked the harnesses into place before nodding farewell to Dizzy.

"Give em hell, fellas." Dizzy said as the doors closed and the lift was launched into the ground. As the lift made its way through the ground, Carmine and Natalie struggled to keep the contents of their stomachs from coming back up. After what seemed like hours, but could only have been a couple minutes, the Grind lift finally broke through into the Hollow and released the two nauseous Gears.

"Wylde? Carmine? Can you hear me? Tai, Dizzy? Come on, answer me damnit!" Marcus was shouting over the radio trying to get a hold of anyone from their Rig.

"Fenix, it's Wylde, we just touched down in the Hollow and are standing by to regroup." Natalie announced as she helped Carmine back to his feet after he'd collapsed out of the Grind lift.

"Understood, stay put, we'll come to you. What about Tai and Dizzy?"

"Dizzy is fine, he should be heading back to Jacinto now. We lost Tai after the Locust kicked him off the Rig, no idea what happened to him." Natalie answered.

"Shit. Alright, stay where you are, we'll be there in five mike."

"Understood, we'll keep the light on for ya." Natalie cut the transmission and pulled her Lancer off her back. "Alright, let's find some cover and hole up until Dom and Marcus arrive."

"Yeah, sure, just give me a sec." Carmine sighed as he regained his bearings after the jarring ride in the Grind lift. "Okay, I'm good, let's move."

The two Gears made their way to a couple of large rocks that gave good cover from three different directions and hunkered down. Carmine had his Longshot out and was watching for signs of enemy movement while Natalie was organizing her med pouches and taking inventory of what she had.

"I've got movement at my twelve, hundred meters out." Whispered Carmine as he tapped Natalie on the shoulder to get her attention. Looking up from her task, Natalie peeked over her cover and pulled a set of mini-binoculars from her belt. Looking through the binoculars, she spotted the group Carmine had been talking about.

"Shit, looks like a Locust patrol. There's about thirteen of em." Natalie hissed. "It looks like they're headed the other way though. Let's let em pass, no point in fighting when we don't have to."

As if fate itself was fucking with her, a Grind lift dropped from the ceiling above them and landed just six meters to their right. The noise from the impact was loud enough for the Locust patrol to hear it and they immediately began running toward them.

"Wow, talk about bad luck." Carmine muttered as he sighted in on one of the approaching grubs.

"Fuck off, Ben." Natalie drew her Lancer and took aim at the Locust patrol before nodding to Carmine who fired off a round and took the head off the lead grub while she started firing at the main body of the patrol. The Grind lift doors opened and two Gears came spilling out, instantly hearing the sound of gun fire and drawing their weapons.

"Get to cover you fuckin tossers, unless you wanna get your heads blown off!" Natalie yelled to the two Gears who began running toward their position and taking cover next to her and Carmine.

"What squad are you?" One of the Gears asked as he fired at the approaching patrol.

"We're with Delta. Was ordered to hunker down until the rest of our squad could get to us. You?" Natalie answered after ducking back into cover to reload.

"We're with Charlie." A barrage of bullets smacked into his cover forcing him to duck. "The rest of our squad should be right behind us."

Immediately, another Grind lift came through the ceiling and impacted ten meters behind their cover.

"And there they are." The Gear added. As the Grind lift doors opened, the remaining members of Charlie came rushing out with their Lancers drawn and joined in on their cover.

"Michaels, who are these two?" The leader of Charlie asked as he glanced at Natalie and Carmine.

"They're from Delta, Sarge. They were already here when we touched down." Michaels replied as he fired another burst at the grubs. Together they'd managed to drop the Locust patrol from thirteen to six, but the remaining grubs were sticking to cover and forcing the Gears to waste their ammo. Looking up, Natalie saw stalagmites hanging from the ceiling above where the Locusts were taking cover. She aimed and fired, causing one of the heavy rock formations to drop down, crushing one grub and forcing two out of cover. Carmine was quick to capitalize on the grub's lack of cover and blew off one of their heads, while Michaels and his Sargent took down the other one.

As Natalie took aim at another stalagmite, Carmine tapped her shoulder and pointed out toward the Locust. Coming out from behind a rock pillar, Dom and Marcus opened fire on the grubs behind cover and dropped them quickly.

"Carmine, Wylde, you two okay?" Marcus asked over the net.

Standing from her cover, Natalie waved to her squad leader and replied with a 'we're good'. As the two groups joined up, Charlie squad wished them luck before taking off toward their own objective while Delta moved toward theirs. Which happened to be 30 meters behind a rock wall.

"Well shit." Marcus muttered as he looked for another way around.

"We could tip over the Grind lift and use it to drill through." Dom suggested.

"Good idea, you and Carmine push it on its side, Jack, get it working." Marcus ordered as Dom and Carmine began pushing it over and Jack de-cloaked. The assist droid floated over to the now tipped over Grind lift to begin programming it while Delta took up positions to protect it in case another Locust patrol showed up. After a minute, Jack made a few noises to indicate he was done before turning invisible again.

As the Grind lift started up and began tunneling through the rock wall, Delta moved into the tunnel behind it.

"Fuck, I can barely see in here." Dom wheezed out after a coughing fit.

"You guys should really consider wearing helmets. The filter system in these things is great." Carmine chipped in with a slight chuckle.

"Shove that helmet up your ass, Ben." Natalie hacked out after accidentally breathing in a lungful of dust. Dom and Marcus grunted in agreement as Carmine continued to laugh to himself.

Finally clearing the tunnel and taking a deep breath of dust-free air, Delta continued through the Hollow. They were now on a high cliff overlooking a large open area where more Grind lifts were touching down. Suddenly, the distinct sound of a mortar firing was heard followed by the shells impacting near the Gears below.

"This is Alpha, are there any squads with a visual on that mortar team?" The distinct voice of Jace Stratton called over the radio.

"This is Delta, we got you covered, Jace." Marcus answered before taking off toward where the sounds of gunfire and a mortar could be heard up the trail.

"What the fuck, Jace? Who the hell cleared you for duty?" Natalie questioned as she rounded a curve in the trail and opened fire on grub that was taking aim with a Longshot, killing it before it could fire.

"Ohh, hey doc, I didn't really enjoy the idea of sitting this one out, so I decided to bust out and hopped on a free Rig. You're not mad, are you?" Jace replied sheepishly as he continued moving from cover to cover below.

"Stow it. Wylde, you can yell at Jace later, focus on the mission." Marcus scolded as he kicked a grub over the edge of the cliff. Natalie saw the grub with the mortar begin loading another round and charged toward it while revving her chainsaw.

"FUCKING MACHO GEARS AND THEIR GOD DAMNN PRIDE!" She yelled as she bisected the grub from head to crotch before turning to another one that was charging towards her, intent on grabbing her. She dodged to the side and kneed it in the gut as hard as she could, causing it to fall to the ground on its hands and knees.

"You need. To listen. TO! YOUR! DOCTOR!" Natalie shouted as she kicked the grub onto its back before stomping on its chest repeatedly until it caved in. Delta had finished with the rest of the grubs and had been watching Natalie take out her frustrations. Each just standing there and staring as she stood up straight and brushed her hair back so it was only covering her left eye.

"Uh, Jace. I think you should avoid Wylde for a little bit, she's uh...she's not too happy with you right now." Marcus mentioned over the net. Natalie rounded on the three Gears that were watching her and pointed at them.

"You three! If I ever tell you not to fight until cleared by a doctor, you had better FUCKING LISTEN!" Natalie screamed before turning away and continuing to the objective. She didn't see the stunned looks on their faces or the nods they gave in understanding, but Natalie was confident that they would heed her words.

As Natalie stormed off, she pulled her cigarettes out of her armor and began lighting one up. Taking a few, quick drags to calm her nerves she waited for the rest of Delta to catch up. Carmine was the first to break the silence.

"You can be really scary sometimes." Marcus and Dom both nodded in agreement without looking back as they all continued down the path.

"Well, Ben, never go against my medical judgment and you'll never have to see me like that." Natalie dead panned as she took another drag of her cigarette.

"Noted." Carmine muttered before focusing on the trail ahead. The walk, for most part was uneventful. They followed the trail for a while, ran into a few Locust camps, realized that Carmine was an ace with a Longshot, but the most confusing thing they'd noticed was that the ground kept shaking as they moved through the Hollow. After about an hour of fighting and moving, their radios came online.

"-elta, Control, do you read? I repeat, Delta, Control, do you copy?" Anya called over the net.

"Delta here, go ahead Control." Marcus replied as he gestured for Delta to hold.

"We're getting some strange seismic readings around the city of Ilima. I need your squad to investigate. How copy?"

"Understood, Control. Moving to investigate." Marcus acknowledged. "Alright, Delta, you heard her, let's move out."

"You know, I'm just pointing out the fact that I'm not a seismologist. So I don't think I'm gonna be much help on this one." Natalie chuckled as they moved through the Hollow toward the last known quake's epicenter.

"Join the club." Dom muttered. "Seriously Marcus, how are we supposed to figure out what's causing all these quakes?"

"I don't know, but we got our orders so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"Maybe they're using bombs, like excavation mines or something like that." Carmine suggested.

"Maybe. If they are, at least that's something we can do something about." Marcus replied. As Delta moved through the Hollow an even stronger quake than anything they'd felt before shook the entire cavern.

"What the fuck, the ceilings collapsing!" Carmine shouted as stalagmites and massive chunks of rock fell from above them.

"MOVE, DELTA!" Marcus shouted as they began sprinting back the way they came to escape the area. They all ran as fast as they possibly could, cursing fate for trying to kill them by crushing them. As they finally cleared the danger zone, they all took a moment to breath, Carmine and Dom dropping to a knee to catch their breath while Marcus tried calling control and having no luck. Natalie however was looking back at the cave in and was left utterly speechless.

"Control, this is Delta. Control, please respond." Marcus continued to try and contact control until he saw Natalie and how she was just staring, wide-eyed, back the way they came. "Wylde, what are you...holy shit."

The cave in was actually the city of Ilima sinking into the ground. As Delta continued to stare, they suddenly felt another quake before one of the cavern walls around the city burst out and a massive worm moved through the city ruins being led by some Locust on a big flying thing. The worm was eventually lead down another tunnel before disappearing entirely from view along with the Locust.

"Holy shit. Holy shit. HOLY SHIT!" Carmine shouted after seeing the worm.

"You can say that again." Natalie muttered, getting a nod from Dom.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Delta, Control, what's happening? We're getting reports that Ilima just sank!" Anya shouted over the TAC/COM.

"Anya it's a worm, the Locust are using a giant worm to sink the cities!" Marcus answered before a KR was seen falling from the sky and the pilot's voice was heard on their radios.

"This is KR nine-five, we are going down, repeat, we are going down. Requesting assistance from any COG forces in the AO!"

"Alright, let's get to the pilot. We'll deal with the worm later." Marcus ordered.

As Delta began making their way through the town, fighting Locust forces and attempting to help any Stranded that had survived the city sinking, they tried to get in contact with any other squads that may be down here with them, but their transmissions either weren't getting through or they just couldn't receive. Either way, they were on their own. They briefly received a transmission from someone, but the message was so distorted and jumbled that there was no way to make out who had called or what they were trying to say.

"Come on, the KR's just beyond this wall. Stay sharp, there's no way the Locust haven't seen that signal smoke." Marcus warned before kicking down a door and moving into what looked like a hotel lobby. The second floor surrounded them on all sides and the KR was sitting atop a pile of rubble in the middle, completely engulfed in flames.

"I don't think the pilot made it." Dom stated solemnly as he moved toward the downed KR.

"There's no way to check either, the flames are blocking the way." Natalie commented as she too moved forward. Her head shot around, looking up at the second floor while aiming her Lancer.

"What?" Carmine asked after seeing her sudden action and raising his own Lancer.

"I thought I heard-" before she could finish, a guttural roar sounded out from the second floor and Locust Drones began surrounding them on the second floor.

"Shit, ambush! Get to cover!" Dom shouted as he grabbed Natalie and hauled her behind a pillar with a box next to it while Marcus and Carmine took cover behind the door they entered through.

"How the fuck did we not see this coming?" Carmine shouted as he blind-fired around the door.

"Doesn't matter, just keep firing!" Dom shouted as he pulled Natalie back to avoid a grenade blast.

"We won't last much longer like this!" Natalie shouted as she looked around for a way out. "Damnit, I always dreamed of dying on a tropical island."

"Really? An island?" Dom questioned as he leaned out of cover and gunned down a grub trying to throw a grenade.

"Tropical island, thank you very much and yes, I'd rather die on a tropical island without any grubs shooting at me!" Natalie answered in indignation. More grubs continued to appear along the second story and most had decided that Dom and Natalie were the better targets.

"Fuck, what the hell is their problem with us?" Natalie yelled as she pulled further back into cover, feeling bullets getting much closer than she was comfortable with.

"I don't think our cover's gonna hold out for much longer and it'd be suicide to try and move anywhere else!" Dom shouted while searching the area for anything that might save them.

"Boy, you're just Mr. Positivity, aren't you?" Wylde deadpanned before switching on her mic. "Hey, Ben. I need you to tell your brother that I'll have to take a rain-check on that date later. Let him know I'm sorry."

"Don't talk like that Wylde, we're gonna survive this! Just hold on!" Marcus shouted over the mic.

"Ain't nobody dying today!"

The Locust on the second floor began turning to face a new threat that had apparently out-flanked them. Before any of them could do anything, a hail of bullets tore through two of them and sent them over the railing and crashing into the first floor. There was a large explosion before Delta came out of cover and began firing at the grubs who now had their backs turned. Within seconds, the gunfire died and Delta moved out of cover cautiously.

As they gathered in the center of the first floor, Delta looked around for their saviors when a chainsaw erupted from one of the walls and began cutting a large hole. As the saw blade was pulled back, the wall was kicked in and when the dust settled, a large black man was standing there with a wide grin plastered on his was.

"What's good, baby?" Cole exclaimed as he held his arms wide.

"Cole-train!" Dom shouted as he walked forward and gave the Gear a hug.

"Where's the rest of your squad, Cole?" Marcus asked as Dom backed away from him and Marcus took Cole's hand in a firm greeting. Cole pulled out three sets of COG tags.

"Here's my squad."

"Shit, man. I'm sorry." Dom stated as he clapped a hand onto Cole's shoulder.

"No worries, baby. I'm gonna make sure they didn't die for nothin." Cole replied before looking toward Natalie and Carmine. "Shit, you already replacing me and Baird? We've only been gone for a couple weeks."

"Cole, this is Wylde and Carmine. Wylde's a combat medic so if you got any injuries, let her know and I suggest you listen to her. She gets...scary when people don't listen to her." Marcus stated as he motioned for the two Gears to step forward.

"Ben Carmine, it's a privilege to meet you, Cole-train." Carmine looked absolutely ecstatic to meet the famous ex-thrashball star. The two shook hands before Cole looked over to Natalie as she approached.

"Natalie Wylde, combat medic. You got any injuries I should know about and don't be shy, I won't judge." Natalie stated with a smirk as she grasped Cole's hand in greeting.

"Ain't no grub gonna take down the Cole-train, baby." Cole answered with a hearty laugh.

"Welcome back to Delta, Cole. Now let's get moving, we need to find an LZ so we can call for extraction." Marcus stated as he made his way through the hole Cole had made.

"I saw a buildin with a nice open area on the roof on my way here, not much cover and the grubs would see it from anywhere, but that's your best bet for gettin a KR down here." Cole gestured in the direction of the building as Marcus nodded.

"Sounds good, let's move Delta."

Fifteen minutes later

"What's up with all these pods?" Carmine asked as they reached a large area with tens of large blue, casket-like objects.

"Don't know, could the grubs be taking prisoners?" Dom asked as they walked through.

"Never heard of them taking prisoners before." Marcus muttered as he glanced into what could only be a view slit on the door of the pod. "Either way, be on the lookout for any pods with someone inside."

"Heads up, people. We got a Locust patrol headed our way." Warned Carmine as he took cover behind a pod on its side and sighted down his Longshot.

"Try and take out that Bloodmount with your first shot." Dom suggested as he took up position next to Carmine. Natalie hid behind a pod on the opposite side of the path from Carmine and prepared a grenade while Cole and Marcus took cover behind another overturned pod.

"Carmine, we go on your mark." Whispered Marcus as he peeked over the pod. With a long exhale, Carmine slowly squeezed the trigger until his Longshot let off a loud 'crack' and the Bloodmount dropped to the ground, causing its rider to fall face first onto the ground.

"Alright, light em up!" Marcus ordered as he stood from cover and began spraying lead towards the grubs. Natalie stepped out from cover and tossed her grenade, landing it right in the middle of three grubs who noticed it a second too late. The explosion tore their bodies apart and stunned two more grubs nearby.

"Whoo! That's how we kill grubs the Delta way, baby!" Cole shouted as he stepped out and tore apart a grub's torso with his Lancer.

"Dom, Wylde, advance!" Marcus ordered.

"Advancing!" Dom shouted before jumping over his cover and sprinting ahead followed closely by Natalie. As Natalie approached cover, she saw that a grub had already taken cover behind. The grub stood up just before Wylde reached cover and was about to take aim until she launched herself through the air and tackled the grub to the floor. Natalie landed on top of the Locust drone and quickly straddled it before smashing her fists into its face until it was hardly distinguishable from a puddle of goo.

As Dom popped up from cover on Natalie's right, he gunned down a grub that was about to get the jump on her. As the medic looked up at the sound of death near her, she saw the Locust go down and looked back to give Dom a nod in thanks before moving into cover. As the two Gears began firing upon the remaining Locust, the rest of Delta moved into cover around them with Cole taking position beside Natalie.

"Shit, baby, you should try out for Thrashball after all this is over! You got some moves!" Cole exclaimed before popping out of cover and gunning down the remaining grub.

"Thanks Cole, but I think I'll stick with the whole medic thing." Natalie replied as she stood from cover and regrouped with the rest of Delta.

"Alright, it looks like we're gonna have to-" Marcus was saying before Wylde cut him off.

"Wait...do you hear that?"

Natalie could just barely hear a voice coming from one of the pods around them and as the rest of Delta began listening, they too began to hear the voice.

"Split up and search for where that voice is coming from!" Marcus ordered as Delta spread out amongst the many pods. Carmine and Natalie were searching near the same area and they could tell the voice was getting louder as they continued on. Eventually, they began to understand what the voice was saying.

"Hey, is anyone out there? Get me the hell outta here!"

The two Gears moved closer to the voice until they finally found the pod, they quickly called over the rest of Delta before beginning to try and pry it open.

"Hold on, we're gonna get you out of there soon, just stay calm." Natalie said into the viewing slit before attempting to pull it open with Carmine's help. As the rest of Delta showed up, they finally managed to crack open the door and swung it wide.

"What the hell took you so long?" Baird exclaimed as he stepped out of the pod.

"Baird, baby, what you doin in there?" Cole asked as he pulled his friend into a hug before Marcus handed a scavenged Lancer to him.

"They're takin people, man. They're taking them in these pods and torturing them, I don't know why, but I could hear the screams while they were transporting me here." Baird explained while looking around the dead grubs for a sidearm. "They got these giant torture barges, it's how they transport their prisoners as well as travel through all the tunnels quickly."

"Then it looks like we're gonna need to get one in order to make it to that building you were talking about, Cole." Dom stated while looking at what appeared to be a giant dock that was sticking out into one of the tunnels.

"Most likely." Natalie added. "We could also free any captives that they may have on board, there's a good chance there are some fellow Gears on them."

"Alright, let's wait for the next barge to come in and take it, we'll set up an ambush and hit em as they come off." Explained Marcus. Delta began setting up along the dock, making it the perfect kill zone. Natalie was by Baird, checking him over for injuries, much to his displeasure.

"Would you leave me alone, I already said I'm fine." Baird hissed as he tried to push the medic away.

"There's blood coming from beneath your chest plate. I need to make sure it isn't serious." Natalie responded as she, once again tried to move his armor in order to see the wound.

"God damnit, woman. I said I'm fi-" Baird began until a pistol stuffed under his chin cut him off.

"Listen up, fuck stick, either you're gonna let me check the wound willingly or I'm gonna knock you the fuck out and check it. Either way, I'm gonna see it. Now how about you do the smart thing and cooperate." Natalie growled out as she pressed her pistol harder into Baird's jaw.

Baird slowly moved his hand up to his armor and unlatched the left side, allowing Natalie to pull it away and examine the wound. It wasn't serious, but it needed to be bandaged none-the-less.

"See, that wasn't so hard now, was it?" Natalie asked as she gave Baird a sickeningly, sweet smile. Baird opted to keep his mouth shut as the medic bandaged his minor wound, then clipped his armor back together when she announced that she was done. A few minutes later, Carmine whispered over the net.

"You're one scary-ass bitch, you know that?" Baird grumbled.

"Locust barge is inbound, I count five grubs and two boomers on the deck and I'm betting there are more inside."

"Copy that Carmine, alright, Delta, wait for them to get off the barge before engaging. Carmine, see if you can take out one of those boomers with your first shot, we'll go on your signal." Marcus radioed back as he double-checked his Lancer's magazine to ensure he had a full clip.

As the barge finally docked and the locust began walking down the ramp with the two boomers leading the way, a sharp 'crack' was heard and one of the boomers dropped to the ground, it's throat blown out and gushing blood.

"Open fire." Marcus shouted as he stood from cover along with the rest of Delta and began gunning down the small group while Carmine blasted a hole in the head of the second boomer. As the last grub dropped to the deck, Delta began storming up the ramp and onto the barge.

"Now what?" Dom asked before the sound of a lift came from the back of the barge. "Shit, GRINDER!"

Delta took cover as the large grub began to unleash a wall of lead with its heavy machine gun, tearing up the deck of the barge and keeping Delta pinned behind cover.

"Wait for his gun to overheat then take him out!" Baird shouted from his spot behind a pillar. As Delta waited for the bullets to stop flying, they each blind-fired toward the Grinder in hopes of getting a lucky shot. After what felt like a full minute, the bullets finally stopped and Delta sprung out of cover to attack, but the Grinder was gone and the lift was back inside the main body of the barge.

"Fuck, they're playing this one smart." Baird exclaimed before seeing Carmine run forward with Natalie, each holding a grenade.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Marcus asked as he watched the lift for any signs of its descent.

"We're setting a trap." Natalie dead panned as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. The two Gears each activated the trip wires on their grenades and extended them so that the lift would set them off when it came all the way down while the grenades themselves were planted on the railing right behind the lift. As Carmine and Natalie sprinted back into cover, the lift began descending once more.

"Griiind." The Grinder growled out as it once again began firing upon the Gears that were hiding on the deck. It had no idea that two grenades were waiting just behind it. As the lift finally touched down, the tripwires for the grenade were triggered and they both detonated, shredding the Grinder's body and severing the lift from its cables.

"Fantastic, now how are we supposed to get up there?" Baird questioned in annoyance while looking to the two Gears that had set the trap.

"We climb. The chains are still attached to the upper deck and it's not really that high. Honestly we could just boost each other up there." Natalie stated as she examined the opening in the upper deck. "Actually...Ben, give me a boost!"

Carmine jogged over and knelt on one knee while holding his hands together as a platform for Natalie's foot

"Okay, on three." Carmine stated. "One, two, THREE!"

With a strong heave, Carmine lifted Natalie high enough to grab the edge of the lift opening and climb up. As the rest of Delta watched her disappear into the bowels of the barge, they waited in silent anticipation for any word from their medic.

"It's clear!" Natalie called from inside, prompting the rest of Delta to begin climbing up the chains that the lift previously rode on. As they regrouped inside the barge, Natalie was coming down a ramp that lead to the upper deck with her Lancer slung on her back.

"Anything up there?" Marcus asked as he headed toward a lever on a central post.

"No more grubs, if that's what you're asking about, but there are two Troikas and a control panel that probably gets this thing moving." The medic commented as she approached on of the cells and peered inside. Marcus pulled the lever and the cell doors all opened, letting out a terrible stench. From one of the cells, Tai shuffled out. He was stripped bare from the waist up and he had massive gashes across his chest.

"Tai, good to see ya, here." Marcus pulled his shotgun off his back and went to hand it over to the Gear until Natalie ran over and pushed his arm away.

"Wait!" She exclaimed before looking back at Tai. "Tai, are you okay?"

Tai gave no answer as he just stood there, staring blankly ahead of himself.

"Tai, do you know where you are?" Natalie tried, receiving the same response. "Do you remember who I am?"

Natalie gently placed a hand on Tai's bicep, causing the Gear to slowly look toward her. Though his expression was still blank, Natalie could see all she needed to.

"They broke him, Marcus. Whatever they did to him, he's no longer himself. Giving him a gun at this point would just be too dangerous. To himself as well as us." Natalie explained as she looked back at Marcus.

"What do you mean he isn't himself?" Carmine asked from behind Fenix. "Do you mean he's crazy or something?"

"Not crazy, just...hollow, would be the best way to put it." Natalie bit her lower lip in thought before continuing on. "It would take months of therapy, maybe even years until he even regains a semblance of who he once was and there's no guarantee that he'd ever be the same as before."

"Well we can't just leave him here!" Dom shouted as he stood on Marcus' right.

"We can't take him with us either." Natalie replied. "He's barely functioning as it is and we're in the middle of a war zone. I'm sorry Marcus, but that's my honest opinion."

Marcus looked at the ground in thought. The difficulty of this decision was plastered on his face. He couldn't just leave Tai here, but at the same time, bringing him along would be like sentencing him to death. Finally, as he hardened his gaze, he held his shotgun out to Tai and waited as the shell of a man reached out and gripped the weapon before slowly angling it up under his chin. Delta closed their eyes and waited for the inevitable. As the loud 'boom' of the shotgun sounded out followed by the sick 'thump' of flesh hitting the ground. They opened their eyes before Marcus walked up to the body and retrieved his shotgun along with Tai's COG tags before walking up the ramp to the top deck without uttering a word.

Natalie glanced at the body and offered a quick prayer before following after Delta who were all making their ways up to the top deck. As Baird activated the barge and they set off toward their final destination, Natalie took out her cigarettes and lit one up. Relishing in the soothing effect the tobacco had on her nerves.

"Cole, Dom, get on the guns and watch for any other barges. Carmine, be on the lookout for anything coming up behind us. Baird, Wylde, we'll be providing extra security." Marcus ordered causing Natalie to draw her Lancer again and taking up a position next to Carmine.

"I can't believe they did that to him." Ben muttered as he watched the tunnel behind them, his Longshot ready to go at a moment's notice. "I mean, he could survive anything."

Natalie placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sorrowful look.

"Everyone has their breaking point, put a man to the torch long enough and you'll eventually reach it."

"Hey, I want you to promise me something." Carmine started after a few minutes of silence.

"Anything."

"If...if I ever get taken, promise me you won't let them do that to me. I don't care how, just please, don't let them break me." Natalie hesitated, how could she promise him something like that when they were in the middle of a war, but against her better judgment, she nodded her head once and gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze.

Twenty minutes later

The building they were headed for was in sight. The roof having been completely destroyed during the city's sinking and leaving a nice open area big enough for a KR to touch down. But just as Cole had said, it was wide open. Visible from all sides and easily the tallest building around, there wasn't a chance in hell that the Locust wouldn't notice their signal smoke or if they didn't see that, then they'd definitely notice the KR that would be coming in.

"Listen up Delta, once we get to that roof we'll deploy our signal smoke." Marcus started as he glanced around at each of the Gears with him. "It's pretty much gonna be like sounding the dinner bell for all the grubs around, so once we get up there, dig in, stay in cover and no heroics. We can all make it out of this, but we gotta play it smart."

A series of acknowledgements and head nods was Marcus' only response. Delta knew what they were doing, even the two new Delta members knew how to handle themselves, but Marcus just couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong here.

"Let's get out of here." Marcus ordered before leading Delta into the building. Locust resistance was light as they charged in. Gunning down a group of Locust before they were even aware of their presence. Delta didn't let up, not for a second as they charged through the building, killing anything and everything that got in their way. After a few brief encounters and a lot of running up stairs, Delta finally broke down the door onto the roof.

"Delta, clear the roof top! Baird, deploy the smoke!" Marcus shouted as he and the rest of Delta charged through the door and began the process of securing their LZ. As they took up firing positions and began the cleansing process, Baird chucked a grenade into the center of the roof top that began pouring out green smoke while Marcus got on the TAC/COM and called any KR in the area for extraction.

"Dom, grub on your left!"

"Grenadier, take him out!"

"Grub with a shotgun, watch your distance!"

"Advancing, cover me!"

"Reloading!"

Marcus listened as Delta worked like a well-oiled machine, covering each other as they moved or reloaded and ensuring that no grub took any of them by surprise. It was comforting in a way, knowing that they all had each other's backs. The firefight continued for a few more minutes, with Delta crossing from one end of the roof to the other in precise and fluid movements, something that would make any leader proud. As Carmine finished off the last grub with a boot to its head, Delta regrouped in the center of the roof.

"KR is on its way, we just need to hold out long enough for it to get here, so set up what cover you can and hunker down. We're almost out." Marcus stated before dragging a heavy desk into a better position for cover, the rest of Delta doing the same. In the end, they managed to set up a circular barricade around their smoke signal, each one of them giving themselves optimal firing lanes while being able to support the Gears on either side of them. They had a small cache of ammo in the middle that they had scavenged from the Locust and were prepared to hold out for a good while, hopefully it wouldn't be that long though.

"Contact!" Dom shouted as a grub came running through the door before getting gunned down quickly by Dom and Marcus.

"I've got grubs climbing up over the edge!" Carmine called out before shooting the first grub he saw between the eyes. Delta continued to call out targets as the Locust surged onto the rooftop, never making it more than ten feet before they were either gunned down or blown up.

"I've got eyes on the KR!" Baird shouted causing everyone present to involuntarily look toward the sky on Baird's side before quickly focusing back on their target areas.

"Bird's almost here, hold em back, Delta!" Marcus called out, just as the Locust attack seemed to double in intensity.

"They must really not want us to go!" Natalie shouted as she drew her pistol and shot a grub that was trying to shout something right in the mouth before finishing her reload on her Lancer.

"Maybe they just want Cole's autograph!" Dom chuckled out over the sound of gunfire.

"Damn, baby, if that's all you wanted you coulda just asked."

The KR came in and landed about twenty feet away from Delta's barricade, the pilot shouting something over the TAC/COM before Marcus started signaling for Delta to load up. As they sprinted across the roof toward the KR, the cavern wall on the far side of the sinkhole burst out.

"Fuck, that big-ass worm is back!" Natalie shouted as she stepped up into the KR and held out her hand to help the next person.

"All the more reason to get the hell outta here, baby!" Cole was the next in followed by Baird, Dom and Marcus.

"Where's Carmine?" Natalie shouted as she looked over the roof top until she spotted Carmine wrestling with a grub. "Carmine!"

Jumping from the KR, Natalie sprinted back to Carmine and just as the grub gained the upper hand, the medic's armored knee made contact with its face. There was a sickening crack as teeth were smashed and its neck was bent at an awkward angle. Reaching down, Natalie pulled Ben to his feet and began assisting him back to the KR.

"I promised I'd have your back." Natalie grinned as her and Carmine entered the KR and it began to lift off. Natalie and Carmine were sitting on the floor of the KR, with Carmine lying flat on his back while Natalie simply took a knee.

"I can't believe we made it." Ben sighed out as he caught his breath. Before anyone could reply though, the KR was suddenly jarred heavily and ended up tilting to the side. Natalie and Carmine both let out terrified screams as they were thrown out of the KR before any of the other Deltas could grab them. Luckily, it wasn't that far of a fall, unluckily, they were falling into the giant worm's mouth. Natalie closed her eyes and prepared herself for impact, she felt a pair of arms begin to encircle her and opened her eyes briefly to see that Ben had pulled her towards himself and angled their bodies so that he'd cushion her impact. She was unable to say anything before they met the end of their fall and we're both knocked unconscious.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Natalie slowly regained consciousness, her eyes fluttering open as she groaned painfully. Looking around, she quickly spotted Carmine to her left and began crawling over to him, her body protesting heavily with every movement. As she finally reached him, she began checking him over, her medical training kicking in and taking control as she checked his breathing and then his body for any open wounds. After confirming that there were no visible injuries and that he was indeed breathing, she began tapping his shoulder while calling his name.

Carmine released a low groan as he began to come around, his body felt like it'd been hit by a truck and the pounding in his head didn't exactly help either.

"Ugh, wha...what happened?" Ben asked as he began to regain his focus.

"We fell out of the KR." You shielded me from the impact and took the full brunt of it." Natalie explained as she helped him sit up. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"Don't mention it." Carmine replied off-handedly. As he began to take in his surroundings a sense of dread began to grow in his chest. "Um, where exactly are we?"

"I'm pretty sure we're inside the worm." Natalie replied as she stood up and glanced around before offering her hand to help Carmine to his feet. "From what I can tell, we're pretty far inside it as well."

"What makes you think that?" Carmine asked as he stood to his feet and walked over to pick up his dropped Lancer a couple feet away.

"Well, I can't see the mouth and I'm just guessing here, but in a worm this size, that'd mean we're pretty far in." Natalie explained before reaching up to her ear piece. "Control, Wylde, do you copy? Delta, Wylde, do you read?"

"Anything?" Carmine asked as he walked around the cavernous area they were in.

"Nothing, maybe they escaped." Natalie suggested, she began looking around, trying to figure out the best way to escape their current situation when her TAC/COM activated.

"Wylde, what's your status and position?" Gesturing for Carmine to come over, Natalie keyed her mic and replied.

"Carmine and I are good to go, but we seem to be inside the worm."

"Yeah, the rest of us are in here too." Marcus grumbled over the net. "What's your area look like? We appear to be near the mouth."

"Well, Sgt., there's a lot of glowing plant like things around us and some weird things dangling from the ceiling that I'm gonna decide not to fuck with." As Carmine continued to describe what he was seeing, Natalie began inspecting the glowing plant things that surrounded them. As she reached out to touch one of them, a large boil, swelled out of the ground in front of her causing her to back away. Carmine had seen what she was doing and walked next to her, still explaining what was happening.

"Something just came up from the ground, Sarge. It looks like a large boil, if I had to compare it to anything." Carmine explained before the boil suddenly erupted and small, Ticker-like creatures came pouring out of it. "Holy shit, some weird bug-things came out of it!"

Natalie was already firing her Lancer into the small swarm when Carmine joined in a moment later and together, they fended off the small ambush.

"Carmine, report! What's happening? Wylde, answer me god damnit!"

"Those weird bug-things tried to swarm us!" Carmine exclaimed. "If you see anything bulge from the ground, shoot it."

"Acknowledged. Try and hold your position, we're on our way to you now." Commanded Marcus as he cut the transmission. Natalie reached into her chest piece to pull out her cigarettes and lighter, her nerves on edge after what they'd already been through. Taking a long drag from the nerve-calming tobacco, Wylde let out a quiet huff as she exhaled the smoke.

"Fuck this day." She whispered to herself as she glanced around the worm's interior again. "I'm going to take such a long shower when we get back to Jacinto."

"Well, at least you have something to look forward to." Carmine chipped in while he was kneeling next to one of the creature's corpses and inspecting it. "What do you think these are?"

Natalie glanced over her shoulder at the small corpse before turning back and taking another drag of her cigarette.

"Best guess. It's an aggressive enzyme that helps with digestion, probably only comes out when there are living creatures inside." She walked over to Carmine and nudged the corpse with her boot. "Leave it to the grubs to use some of the freakiest shit you can find."

"You can say that again." Carmine stood up and stretched his back while looking around. "When do you think the rest of the rest of the squad will show up?"

"Well, I don't think the worm would be sending out these things if we were past the digestive track, so hopefully soon. Otherwise we need to start trying to find our own way out." Natalie replied while flicking her cigarette butt into a patch of the glowing plant-things. A soft sizzle drew her attention to where she'd just thrown her butt and upon closer inspection, she realized that it was being corroded away by acid.

"Huh, would you look at that." She muttered.

"What?" Carmine asked as he came to see what Natalie was looking at.

"These plant-things are acidic, highly acidic. I think we're in its stomach." Natalie replied as she took a closer look at the surrounding area.

"Should we move somewhere else? I mean, if we're in its stomach, maybe we could try moving back up its throat and escape from its mouth." Ben suggested as he used hand gestures to emphasize his idea.

"I doubt that'd be the best course of action. If this thing decides to eat anything else, we'd be in the path of whatever it swallows." Natalie countered.

Before either Gear could continue their conversation, they heard Marcus call out.

"Carmine, Wylde!"

Turning toward the source of the noise, both Gears spotted the rest of Delta heading towards them.

"Well hey guys!" Natalie waved as Delta jogged up to her and Carmine. "What took you so long?"

"Some ugly-ass grubs popped out of the ground and swarmed us, but ain't nothing the Cole-train can't handle, baby." Exclaimed Cole in his usual cheerful tone.

"Yeah, we had a run in with those things too." Carmine stated. "They looked like Tickers, kinda."

"We can discuss what they looked like later, we need to figure out a way outta here first." Baird interrupted as he looked around the area. "We could probably saw our way out."

"No. First, we're gonna kill this thing, then we'll figure a way out." Marcus commanded with a tone that left no room for discussion.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Baird questioned in annoyance. "This thing is huge!"

"We're gonna rip its god dam heart out."

Marcus walked off, Delta gave each other grim looks of determination before following after him, deeper into the massive worm. As they continued through, they discovered more of green, plant-like things and after a brief explanation from Nat about its acidic properties, realized that they should do everything they could to avoid the stuff. After a good amount of walking as well as a few ambushes from the white Tickers, they began to hear the steady rhythm of what had to be the creature's heart.

"We're almost there, keep moving, Delta!" Marcus sawed through a membrane in the worm's interior structure as he led Delta deeper inside the worm. With each step the best of the heart became more and more noticeable until it was the only thing a person could hear. Delta came upon another membrane wall and the sound of the worm's heart was a heavy bass all around them.

"Alright, Delta, we get in, take out the heart and get out. Watch each other's backs in there, we didn't come this far to lose anyone now." Marcus then began to saw through the membrane, allowing Delta to move into the heart chamber. The worm's massive heart sat before them, thumping its quick rhythm.

"Wylde, take Carmine and cut the arteries. Everyone else, provide cover. Something tells me this thing isn't gonna like what we're about to do."

Natalie and Ben gave nods of acknowledgment before both jogging off toward one of the two arteries connected to the massive muscle. As they each took up a position next to an artery, they revved up their chainsaws and proceeded to tear through the blood-filled veins. Soon as the two Gears began their work, a massive flow of blood almost knocked Natalie on her ass, before a swarm of the white Tickers erupted from the ground all around Delta and began their attempt to stop the foreign bodies from harming their host any further.

"Don't let them near Carmine and Wylde, keep them back!" Marcus shouted as he fired into the swarm, backing up toward Natalie. As the arteries were finally severed, blood continued to flow into the chamber, quickly flooding the area and forcing Delta to advance deeper into the worm in order to avoid drowning.

"Well that takes care of that, now let's-" Dom was cut off as the heavy beating of another heart was heard coming from deeper inside the worm.

"Oh you've gotta be fucking kidding!" Baird shouted.

"Move it, Delta!" Marcus ordered as they began jogging toward the next heart. "Same as last time, Wylde and Carmine will take out the heart while the rest of us watch their backs!"

Delta entered the second chamber and immediately went about their tasks, Ben and Natalie heading straight for the nearest artery while the remainder of Delta stayed near to hold off any counter-attack. As Carmine moved to the second artery, Natalie began her work on the first, easily slicing through and severing the artery from the heart. Carmine was starting on the second when a swarm of the white Tickers came from ahead of him and, before Natalie or the rest of Delta could react, bull-rushed Carmine.

"AHHHH!" Carmine shouted as the swarm surrounded his legs and began trying to eat through his armor. Ben gritted his teeth and continued to saw through the artery as he endured the pain shooting through his body.

"CARMINE!" Dom shouted as he turned to see the young Gear get swarmed.

"Get the fuck away from him!" Natalie shouted as she charged forward, pushing through the torrent of flowing blood from the artery she'd just cut and rushing to Carmine's aid along with the rest of Delta. They opened fire upon the swarm around Carmine, using short bursts from their Lancers so they didn't accidentally shoot Ben. After the last of the swarm had been taken care of, Carmine dropped to his knees, the blood from the freshly severed artery flowing over him and covering him in the worm's blood. Natalie rushed to him and hauled him through the blood toward the final artery, using her Lancer, she fired the rifle one-handed until the vein erupted, spraying blood in all directions and causing the chamber they were in to flood even faster than the last one.

"Ah, fuck!" Carmine shouted as he was dragged along by Natalie. Dom and Marcus rushed ahead of them while Baird and Cole stayed in the back to cover the rear.

"Come on, Ben, you're gonna get through this, just stay with me!" Natalie shouted as she drug her friend out of the chamber. As Delta secured the small area, Marcus turned back to Wylde.

"How's he doing?"

Natalie had laid Carmine on his back and was attempting to clear the blood from his legs in order to see how severe the wound was when Marcus had asked his question.

"I can't tell, there's too much blood for me to see the wounds and there's not enough time to clean here."

Before Marcus could say anything more, the sound of another heartbeat, only at a much faster pace, was heard.

"God damnit! How many fucking hearts does this bitch have?" Cole shouted angrily.

"Shit." Marcus swore as he turned toward the frantic beating. "It sounds like this things on its last legs so let's just push forward and get this done. Cole, carry Carmine, Wylde, you cut the arteries. We finish this now, Delta!"

Cole picked up Carmine in a fireman's carry after putting away his Lancer and drawing his Boltok pistol. Carmine released a grunt of pain as he was lifted up onto the Thrashball star's shoulders, but still managed to draw his Snub pistol with his left hand, promising to do his best to watch Cole's back.

As Marcus led Dealt into the final heart chamber, blood had already begun to fill the area, pouring in from the other chambers. Natalie instantly took off toward the first artery, the blood high enough to hide her feet from view. As she revved up her chainsaw and went to work on the first of four arteries, the swarm made its reappearance. Wylde made quick work of the first artery, tearing through it and rushing toward the second, blood beginning to fill the chamber at an alarming rate as it now came up to her knees. The swarm had disappeared after the blood had risen too high for them to see and now Marcus and Dom rushed over to cut the last two arteries while Natalie went to work on the second.

The blood was now up to Natalie's chest as she began wading toward the chamber wall along with all of Delta. The Gears all revving their chainsaws, aside from Cole and Ben, and began to cut and tear their way out of the beast. As the Gears pushed through the muscle and fat lining the sides of the worm, the blood followed them. Natalie was now completely submerged while the rest of Delta could still hold their heads above.

Natalie Wylde POV

'Oh god, I can't breathe!' I thought to myself as I struggled to cut through the worm. My arms were sore and my body ached, but the worst feeling was the burning in my lungs from the lack of oxygen. I'd been submerged for almost forty-five seconds now and I knew that I wasn't going to last much longer. I pushed the pain to the back of my mind, focusing my thoughts on the vibrations my Lancer was making in my hands as I continued to saw my way out.

'Come on, I'm not going out this way! Not now, not after what I've been through!'

I could feel my body giving out on me, I wasn't as strong as the other Gears, I've never had the endurance that they did, but I had the will to push myself and that had gotten me this far, but it seemed that it couldn't push me all the way. I jammed my Lancer forward a final time, feeling next to no resistance.

'This is it!' I thought, gaining hope as I began to pull my lancer up. It didn't move, I pulled with all the strength I had left, my only thoughts being of escape until my oxygen-deprived mind finally realized something. The vibrations from my Lancer had stopped. The chainsaw was either jammed or flooded, either way, it meant I wasn't going anywhere.

'No, nononono NO!' I mentally screamed as I tugged on my Lancer only to realize that it was now lodged into the flesh of the worm. 'Please, God...I don't wanna die...'

Her thoughts trailed off as the air she'd been holding in escaped from her body and she instinctively took in a lungful of blood. Unable to breath and with no strength left, her body spasmed twice before going still as she lost consciousness.

Ben Carmine POV (thirty seconds earlier)

Delta erupted from the side of the worm in a waterfall of blood, hitting the ground hard. I rolled from Cole's back and coughed heavily as I pulled my helmet from my head and spit out a large amount of the worm's blood. I just stared up at the sky, breathing heavily along with the rest of Delta. My only thoughts were of how great fresh air was. After simply breathing for a few seconds, I rolled my head left and right, taking in the sights of my fellow Gears who were spread all around me. Baird was coughing out blood and complaining about how it wasn't his, Cole had rolled over onto his back and was just breathing with a big grin on his face while Marcus and Dom smuggled to their hands and knees, each of them spitting out blood and taking deep breaths.

'I bet Nat is trying to light up a cigarette.' I mentally chuckled as I glanced around trying to find the woman who had become like an older sister. 'Where is she?'

I pushed myself to sit up as my heart began to race as I realized that Nat wasn't with us. Looking back at the worm, I noticed the tip of a Lancer sticking out of its skin. My mind quickly put two and two together and I instantly tried to run towards it only to collapse face first in a rush of pain as my legs screamed in protest.

"Guys! Nat's still trapped in there!" I shouted while pointing toward the Lancer I had spotted. Marcus was the first to react, following my finger until he saw what I was pointing at. He quickly scrambled to his feet and ran toward the Lancer while drawing his own.

"WYLDE!" He shouted as he jammed his Lancer into the worm next to where the other Lancer stuck out. Marcus began sawing straight up while Dom and Baird joined him, each Gear grabbing onto opposite lips of the opening and pulling with all their strength. Blood came rushing out of the large gash and Nat's body flopped to the ground lifeless. She wasn't breathing and her eyes were closed. I tried to crawl towards her, but Cole held me back, telling me that there was nothing I could do for her and to let the others handle it.

As Baird began removing her chest plate, Dom was the one who began CPR, while Marcus called Control to inform them of the worm's death and that they required extraction as well as a medical team. Cole maintained his grip on me, keeping me from crawling toward Nat's still form.

Normal POV

"Come on, Wylde, come on!" Dom shouted as he pressed down on Natalie's chest before leaning down to give her mouth to mouth. Marcus paced around the area, silently scolding himself for allowing his squad to be in put in this situation.

"Delta, Control, be advised, KR unit inbound to your location. ETA twenty minutes, how copy?" Anya sounded worried over the TAC/COM, it was no secret that she held a special place in her heart for Delta squad, even more so for Marcus, so hearing that any of them were wounded always put the logistics officer on edge. Marcus gave a quick reply before looking back at Dom, who was still performing CPR on their medic. He had been going non-stop for almost a minute now and all of Delta began to fear the worst. Baird was behind him tinkering with Jack at a frantic pace when he suddenly turned around with a wire in each hand.

"Open her shirt and move over!" Baird ordered as he scooted up next to Dom and wired for the large Hispanic to follow his instructions. Dom quickly ripped Natalie's shirt open and backed away.

"Clear!" Baird shouted before he touched the two wires to Natalie's body, causing the medic to arch into the air before slumping back down onto the ground as lifeless as before. Dom went back to CPR as Baird waited for his make shift defibrillator to charge up again. Marcus began rummaging through Natalie's pouches, looking for anything that could help them in their situation. Baird pushed Dom to the side and warned Marcus to back off before once again shouting 'clear' as he pressed the two wires to Natalie's torso.

"I've got a pulse!" Baird shouted as he checked Natalie's wrist for any sign of life. "Keep up with the mouth-to-mouth, we need to get her lungs clear!"

Dom began giving Natalie breaths for a couple seconds until with a sputtering cough and a large inhale followed by even more coughing, Natalie regained consciousness.

"Give her room, come on, get back!" Dom shouted as he helped the medic to sit up and began patting her on the back in an attempt to help her clear her lungs fully. Natalie continued to cough and dry-heave for a good minute until it seemed that all the blood had been cleared and her airway was open again.

"Are you okay, Wylde?" Baird asked as he leaned into her line of sight. Natalie glanced at him for a second before turning onto her side and vomiting.

"Shit, baby, Baird ain't that ugly." Cole howled out with laughter as he released Carmine who immediately began pulling himself to Natalie.

"Fuck off." Baird mumbled before turning back to Jack and replacing the wires he'd pulled from the little robot. Carmine had finally managed to drag himself over to Natalie after being helped by Cole and quickly wrapped the medic into a hug. Natalie shakily returned the embrace before smiling softly and squeezing onto Ben for all she was worth. She needed the presence to know that this was real, that she wasn't dead and that her squad was with her. As she finally released her hold of Carmine, she looked around before noticing that her chest piece was lying about five feet from her.

Looking down at herself, Natalie simply sighed upon seeing her exposed breast before looking back up at Delta squad who had all gathered in front of her and we're waiting for her to say something.

"Y'know, if ya wanted to see the girls, ya coulda just asked." She stated in a teasing tone as she began chuckling when she saw all of Delta's reactions. Cole simply boomed with laughter along with Dom while Marcus cracked the smallest smile, almost invisible unless you were watching. Carmine blushed furiously as he averted his gaze while Baird simply smirked before flipping her the bird and going back to patching up Jack.

"But seriously, thanks guys." Natalie added with a soft smile.

"Haha, you're one tough SOB, Wylde. Here you go, baby." Stated Cole as he held her chest armor out for her to grab. Taking the COG armor from her squad-mate, she sat it down next to her before opening a compartment on the inside and retrieving her pack of cigarettes and lighter. She laid back as she lighted her cigarette and took a long drag off it, breathing out slowly before turning her head towards Ben.

"How're the legs?"

Ben looked down at his before looking back to Natalie and shrugging.

"They don't hurt right now, but I'm sure once I try to put any pressure on them, it'll be a different story." Carmine reached down and tapped on his shin armor. "I guess this stuff is good for something."

Natalie gave a soft chuckle before taking another drag of her cig. The group sat around and made light conversation as they waited for the KR to arrive and take them back to Jacinto for a well-needed rest.

"I'm gonna take the longest, hottest shower of all time when I get back and I don't give a fuck what anyone says." Natalie exclaimed, earning a chuckle from the rest of Delta.

"I second that!" Dom cheered, earning another round of laughter from the group.

"To hell with the shower, I'm headed straight for the chow-hall and putting them outta business." Cole exclaimed. "Gonna get me a quadruple decker sandwich with bacon and whole fuck-ton of chips!"

"Ohhhhh, bacon." Carmine drooled as he imagined a massive stack of bacon in front of him.

"You're going straight to the hospital when we get back and I don't you dare let me catch you anywhere else unless you've been properly cleared." Natalie warned as she lightly punched Carmine in the shoulder.

"Listen to her, Carmine. She's scary as hell when you don't listen to her." Baird warned, earning nods of agreement from Dom and Marcus.

"Oh trust me, I know." Carmine replied as he hooked a thumb toward the medic. "You shoulda seen the grubs she fought after she found out that Stratton went against her advice."

Another grunt of agreement from Dom and Marcus ended the conversation. A few minutes passed by until Delta heard the sound of a KR approaching quickly.

"About damn time." Marcus muttered as he stood up. Delta followed after while Carmine remained sitting on account of his legs being wounded. As the KR came into view, Delta's eyes hardened when they noticed the Centaur tank being carried below it and we're even more pissed when the tank was dropped in front of them before the KR landed and two Gears rushed out with a stretcher to assist Carmine. Natalie was in the process of strapping her armor back over her torso, grimacing as the hard plates pressed against her bruised chest.

"Control, Delta, we asked for a pick-up not a drop-off." Marcus growled over the TAC/COM. Jack hovered over and dropped the monitor attached beneath it to show Colonel Hoffman.

"Delta, this is command, you've got new orders Fenix."

Natalie sighed as the rest of Delta looked at each other in a mix of confusion and annoyance.

"Operation Hollow Storm is still a go, but we had insufficient Intel on the Locust stronghold. We need to accurately pinpoint the heart of the Heart of the Hollow and take out their leader. Chairman Prescott just declassified an Intel file that reveals a decommissioned COG outpost near your location."

"Oh this is just great." Baird grumbled receiving a nod from Natalie.

"I've been told that it could give us a lead on the Locust strong hold as well as possible information on the Locust queen as well. You are to head out immediately and report any findings to Command."

"Excuse me sir, but what the hell?" Marcus growled to Hoffman. "'Just declassified'?! And what do you mean a Locust queen?"

"Everything is on a need-to-know basis sergeant! You have your mission, now get to that outpost, Command out." Hoffman cut the transmission, leaving Delta fuming at the news.

"Did anyone else's bullshit detector just go off?" Baird questioned.

"I don't know about you all, but this just reeks of badness. I mean, a secret outpost? What the fuck do we need a secret outpost for and more importantly, why are we just now finding this out? If this place might hold the information we need then shouldn't we have done this in the beginning?" Natalie asked as she lit another cigarette.

"I don't know, Marcus, I gotta agree with Wylde on this one, this mission sounds sketch." Cole stated in a concerned tone.

"If Hoffman didn't even know about this-" Dom started before getting cut off by Marcus.

"It isn't like we have a choice, come on Delta, this our last chance." Marcus ordered before putting a hand on Natalie's chest plate, stopping her from moving forward. "Not you, Wylde. I want you to head back to Jacinto with Carmine and get checked out at the hospital."

"I'm fine Marcus, I don't need to-" Natalie was cut off before she could finish.

"It's not a request, Wylde. It's an order, now shut your mouth and get on the chopper!" Marcus shouted causing Natalie to take a step back before hardening her gaze and shoving past Marcus, throwing her half-finished cigarette at the ground in front of his feet. She was stopped on her way toward the KR by a shout behind her. "Wylde!"

Natalie turned around and glared at Marcus, her body language clearly displaying her displeasure at the situation.

"Be ready to ship out as soon as you're cleared." Marcus stated with a smirk. Natalie slowly adopted a small smile of her own.

"Don't go dying on me, I'd never forgive y'all." With that, Natalie turned on her heel and jogged to the KR. As the pilot lifted the bird into the sky, Natalie glanced back down at Delta and gave a small wave as she watched them enter the Centaur before taking off in the opposite direction.

"Relax, Nat." Carmine shouted over the KR. "They'll be fine, it's not like they haven't survived worse before, right?"

Natalie sat down and the edge of the KR, letting her feet dangle in the open air before glancing back at Ben. She gave him a reassuring smile before looking back out into the open sky, giving a silent prayer to the rest of her team.

Thirty minutes later

The KR had arrived in Jacinto ten minutes ago and an ambulance had been waiting to take both Wylde and Carmine to the hospital, it'd been a rather routine procedure, the medic assigned to the ambulance asking both Natalie and Ben about their injuries. By the time they'd arrived at the hospital a few minutes after their arrival, Carmine was being hauled off to get his leg patched up while Natalie was told to wait for a doctor to give her a check-up.

And there she was. Still waiting where they left her, the nurse at the check-in had informed her that the doctors were rather busy with the large amount of civilian personnel with rustlung so she'd have to wait for a bit. Natalie wouldn't actually care if it weren't for the fact that her COG armor was putting pressure on her bruised chest and since she didn't have an undershirt anymore, she couldn't just take it off so she did what any good Gear would do, she asked where the lost and found was and raided it for a shirt.

Unfortunately for her, the only shirt they had wasn't even a shirt, it was a black sports bra and it was two sizes too small, but she knew it'd feel better than the armor. Grabbing the top, she headed off to one of the bathrooms and quickly removed her armor, sighing in relief as the pressure on her chest was removed. Natalie took a few moments to just breath, free of restriction before pulling on the sports bra and checking herself in one of the dirty, broken mirrors. It was pretty easy to tell that the top was too small, her Brest were spilling out of the top and the fabric was stretched to the point that very little was left to the imagination, but until she could get to her bunk where her duffel was sitting, she'd be stuck in this.

Natalie made her way back to the waiting room, turning the heads of men and women alike as she walked. It didn't bother her, she wasn't shy about her body, being a Gear and going through this war stripped her of any shame. Still though, it'd be nice if the wolf whistles coming from the civilians would stop, sighing to herself, she continued on and reached the waiting area shortly after and the sight that greeted her was quite pleasant.

Both Clayton and Anya were standing at the reception desk, talking with the nurse. Anya was worried, if the look on her face was anything to go by and Clayton, even though he was still wearing his helmet, was the same. The nurse quickly caught sight of Natalie out of the corner of her eye and quickly pointed the two before her in her direction. Both Anya's and Clayton's heads whipped around, immediately locking onto her before Anya came rushing over and pulled Nat into a strong embrace. Quickly letting go, Anya kept her hands on Natalie's shoulders as she gave her a quick once over.

'Probably checking for any serious injuries.' Natalie thought to herself before speaking. "Hey Anya, Clayton, what brings y'all here?"

Clayton looked like he was going to respond, but Anya beat him to it.

"I heard that you and Carmine were returning to Jacinto for medical, but no one would tell me how bad it was. I found Clayton on my way here and brought him along, figuring he'd want to see his brother." Clayton nodded his head in agreement before Anya continued. "Now what happened out there?"

"Come on, we can talk outside. I need a cigarette anyways." Natalie answered. The group made their way back to the front desk where Natalie informed the nurse that she'd be outside the main door if the doctor came for her while she was out and turned around, ushering her companions to follow. As they made their way out the door, Natalie pulled her pack out from her armor before setting it on the ground to free her hand and lit her cig.

"Fuck, I don't even know where to begin." Natalie started with a deep sigh. "The whole mission was FUBAR from the beginning. I mean, attacking the Hollow without any actual knowledge of the Locust stronghold and the fact that cities were sinking and we didn't know how. We were pretty much begging to fail, which I'm almost certain we nearly did."

Natalie paused her story to take another long drag from her cigarette when Anya spoke up next.

"What happened after Ilima sunk? The last thing I heard from Delta was the call for evac before you all went silent for almost an hour and your KR wasn't responding."

"Simple version, remember that giant worm we told you about?" Natalie received a nod from the blonde. "Well, it swallowed our KR. Ben and I got knocked out of it when a piece of debris collided with the tail and the worm swallowed the chopper whole shortly after, from what Marcus told me. We regrouped inside it and Marcus informed us that we were going to kill it before trying to escape, so we went after its heart."

Anya went wide-eyed at what Delta had set out to do while Clayton remained completely silent with his arms crossed, just listening. After another drag of her cig, Natalie continued.

"We fought our way through the worm until we found its heart and then Ben and I cut the arteries that were connected to it. Ben got injured when he was swarmed by these Ticker-like things so Cole carried him through the rest. Whole area started filling up with blood so we had to cut our way out and my Lancer jammed in its outer skin so I drowned, but Dom and Baird brought me back and then we waited for the KR."

Anya stared at Natalie, shocked while Carmine just put a fist under his helmeted chin in thought. After an awkward silence, Clayton finally spoke.

"So when did you put on the top that was way too small for you?"

Anya turned and punched him in the arm while Natalie just shook her head and chuckled.

"What?" Carmine exclaimed. "It's a legitimate question!"

"Is that all you've been thinking about this whole time?" Anya demanded as she crossed her arms and glared at him.

"No!" Defended Clayton as he also crossed his arms and stared back, his helmet seeming to try and defy the blonde in front of him. "I also thought about how badass my brother must've looked while cutting through an artery."

"He did look pretty badass, hell, even when he got swarmed, he still kept cutting through." Natalie chuckled after taking a quick drag of her cigarette. "Not as badass as me, but pretty close."

"Moving on." Interrupted Anya as she pinched the bridge of her nose while sighing. "What about the rest of Delta. I heard the original transmission, but Command took over the link shortly after Marcus called for EVAC. What can you tell me about that?"

"So after the KR show-" Natalie was interrupted as a gruff voice shouted out.

"Wylde!" Looking around, Natalie, Clayton and Anya spotted Colonel Hoffman quickly approaching with his eyes set on the medic. "A word in private."

"Yes Sir." Natalie turned back to Clayton and Anya. "We'll talk later and Clayton, I still expect dinner. Stop by my barracks in about two hours."

Turning before a reply could be given, Natalie grabbed her armor and jogged off toward Colonel Hoffman, who was waiting under an overhang with no one around.

"Sir, you wanted to speak with me." Natalie stated as she walked up to Hoffman. The Colonel looked her over for a few seconds before replying.

"I hope, Wylde, that you weren't about to talk about Delta's current mission. A mission, I might add, that is still top secret."

"Sir, I-"

"Because if that were the case, I'd have no choice, but to have you detained, court-martialed and most likely, executed for treason." Hoffman continued over Nat. Her face went pale as Hoffman spoke, her breathing became slightly labored as she imagined being hauled off by her fellow Gears and put in front of a firing squad.

"Sir, please, I had no idea the mission was top secret, I heard you say that the Chairman declassified the Intel file and assumed-" once again, Natalie was interrupted by Hoffman, but this time his voice took on a softer tone.

"Wylde, relax. You're not in any trouble, but just think what would happen if people found out that the Chairman had been sitting on something like this. How they would react knowing that their leader withheld information that could have possibly ended the war earlier." Hoffman paused as he took a deep breath and removed his hat, rubbing the back of his head before meeting Natalie's gaze once more. "I don't like it either, Wylde, but we need to show a unified front. If we start turning on each other then we'll lose this war for sure."

Hoffman replaced his hat and began walking off, not waiting for a reply from the still shocked medic of Delta. Nat continued to think about what she could've caused had she actually told Clayton and Anya about Delta's current mission, but her musings were interrupted when an older woman's voice rang out across the courtyard of the hospital.

"WYLDE! Get the hell in here, I haven't got all day!" Natalie turned to see an older woman in a doctor's coat standing at the main door and looking around the area, trying to spot her intended patient. Shaking her head, Natalie jogged toward the doctor, who locked eyes on her and pushed the door open, allowing Natalie to enter ahead of her.

"We're not going to a room just so you can get a check-up." The doctor stated as she began looking over Natalie. She pressed on Natalie's ribs and asked told her to do a few stretches and deep breaths before turning around and walking off.

"You're good to go, just try not to drown again." She stated before rounding a corner in search of her next patient. Natalie just picked up her armor again and began heading back to her barracks. It was time for her shower and she was going to enjoy every second of it, but first, she had to go check on Ben. Making her way through the hospital, she walked up to the main desk and asked where Ben had been taken. After some quick directions from the nurse, she began her search.

Spotting a sign hanging from the wall reading 'Recovery', Natalie walked in and quickly spotted Ben, laying on a hospital bed, minus his armor and having both legs wrapped in bandages from the ankles up to his knees. Clayton was there as well, talking with his youngest brother and smiling as Ben told him about the worm in greater detail.

"I told you he was a badass." Natalie chuckled as she walked up to the two brothers, receiving a cheerful greeting from Ben. "So what'd the docs say?"

"I'll be good to go in a couple weeks, but you and Delta will have probably won the war by then." Ben replied in a slightly saddened tone.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure there are still a few grubs left for you after you get out. Hell, maybe I'll drag the queen over so you can make the killing blow." Ben's face visibly relaxed upon hearing that and a wide smile grew across his face.

"If you manage to bring me the queen, I'll build you a mansion when this is all over." Ben laughed as Clayton and Natalie chuckled.

"Well, I've got a hot shower with my name on, so get some rest Ben, Delta still needs you in top shape." Natalie gave Ben a pat on the shoulder before Clayton ruffled his hair and said goodbye. As the two Gears walked out of the hospital, Natalie took a deep breath and smiled as they made their way back to their barracks. Clayton couldn't help, but notice Natalie's good mood.

"Why all sunshine and daisies?" Natalie took a moment to reply, but she replied with a smile.

"Well, we all survived the initial assault on the Hollow, we survived being eaten by a giant worm and now I'm headed towards a hot shower. I don't really know how this day could get any better."

"I could join you." Clayton's response was almost instant, catching Natalie slightly off-guard, but she recovered quickly and glanced up at her fellow Gear. The way Clayton had said that, it was like he was simply commenting on the weather and Natalie liked it.

"Careful, big guy, don't threaten me with a good time." Natalie replied, watching the muscular Gear for his response.

"I wasn't threatening, I was offering." Clayton looked down at Natalie. "Besides, it looks like you might need some help getting all that dried up blood off."

"There are a few places where help would be nice." Natalie commented, looking ahead again and seeing their destination ahead of them. "Well, if you're being serious, then I'll see you in the shower."

With that, Natalie opened the door to see that there were only three other Gears in the large building, the others probably either on patrol or at the mess-hall. Quickly making her way to her cot, Natalie stripped the rest of her armor off before grabbing a fresh pair of underwear, a new top and her towel. As she walked toward the shower, she saw Clayton grabbing his own towel and begin making his way toward the shower as well. Clayton was only wearing his boxers and COG tags and Natalie was doing everything she could, not to just stare. She'd seen some muscular guys before, but Clayton was ripped.

'He's almost bigger than Cole.' Natalie thought to herself as she reached the door to the showers and walked in with Clayton right behind her. As soon as the door closed, Natalie felt herself get whipped around before Clayton's lips were planted firmly against her own with his arms wrapping themselves around her tiny waist. Natalie returned the kiss feverishly, opening her mouth slightly and licking his lower lip. Clayton's hands began to glide up and down her back, sending shivers of pleasure along her spine and causing her to moan softly.

This only encouraged the muscled Gear to double his efforts and as he slid both of his hands down to her firm rear, she quickly brought her hands up, sliding them along Clayton's toned abs and planted them on his chest. She pushed him away, breaking their passionate lip lock. They were both breathing heavier, lust coursing through both their bodies, but Natalie needed something to be clear to Clayton before anything else happened.

"Clayton." Natalie began, sliding her soft hands onto Clayton's shoulders before wrapping them around the back of his neck and leaning her head against his chest. "I want this, I really do, but I won't be a one-night-stand. I want a relationship, I want to be able to look at you and smile while telling everyone about us. If you're not ready for that or just want a quick fuck, than this isn't going to happen. I won't be another notch on your belt."

Natalie felt Clayton take a deep breath, she buried her head further into his chest, too scared to look up at him for fear of rejection. Clayton slowly lifted a hand and cupped her chin, tilting her head back so that she would meet his gaze.

"I know you have no reason to believe me." Clayton began. "But in the brief time I've known you, I've realized two things. First, you're the most amazing and beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on and second, if you ever came to harm, rather physical or emotional, I'd cross Sera twice over to kill the fucker that hurt you."

Natalie smiled as a heavy blush set in on her cheeks and quickly pulled Clayton down while standing on her tip-toes to capture his mouth in another heated kiss. Clayton, once more, began sliding his hands down her back and grabbing her rear before lifting her up off the ground. Natalie quickly wrapped her legs around his waist as he began walking toward the shower stalls, never once breaking the kiss. As they entered the stall, Clayton kicked the door closed behind him and took one of his hands from his ass to lock the door before immediately returning it to its prior spot.

Natalie untangled herself from Clayton, who slowly lowered her back to the ground before both had to break away from each other when oxygen became necessary. Handing her clothes and towel to Clayton, she turned around to start the shower. Hearing Clayton hang the items on one of the hooks on the door before feeling his hands slide around her waist as he stepped up behind her and pressed himself against her back. Natalie could feel his arousal against her lower back, she moaned in anticipation as Clayton began planting soft kisses along her neck and shoulders as his hands traveled up her sides until he hooked his thumbs under her sports bra and began lifting up.

Natalie raised her arms above her head as Clayton slipped the article of clothing over her head and threw it to the side before sliding his hands back down her arms and onto her full breasts. Her breath hitched as he squeezed her breasts firmly in his rough, calloused hands, while he continued to assault her neck with kisses. Natalie lowered her arms and brought them to rest behind Clayton's head, running her fingers through his shaggy p, brown hair and arching her neck to allow him more room to roam with his lips.

Turning around in his arms, Natalie brought herself to face him. Now facing each other, Natalie lowered herself to her knees, sliding her chest along Clayton's body the whole way until she was eye level with his crotch. Her eyes widened after seeing his arousal struggling against his boxers and slowly, she ran her hands up his legs until they were at his hips before she pulled his boxers down, releasing his hardened manhood. She had to pull her head back to avoid his cock smacking her in the face after she released it, she began sliding both hands from his dropped boxers and back up his legs before sliding them onto his erect member, grasping it firmly in both hands.

Clayton let out a low growl as Natalie's hands wrapped around his cock, he could feel her hot breath against it and watched as she slowly inched her way toward it, closing the gap between the tip of his cock and her lips. After what could be described as the longest minute in Clayton's life, Natalie finally placed her lips against his tip and gave it a soft kiss as she began pumping her hands up and down his hard, eleven-inch shaft. Clayton gently placed one hand on top of Natalie's head, softly running his fingers through her jet-black hair, still matted and dirty from her previous mission, but he didn't care. In his mind, this moment was perfect and she was the most beautiful creature he'd ever had the privilege of seeing.

Natalie began increasing the speed of her hands as she took the head of his cock into her mouth, sucking on it lightly. This caused Clayton to tilt his head back and moan in pleasure. Natalie removed one of her hands from Clayton's member and quickly brought it down inside her shorts to rub at her own sex through her panties. Clayton brought his other hand to the back of Natalie's head and began gently thrusting his hips, pushing his cock deeper into her warm mouth. Natalie was taking almost five inches of his cock into her mouth and was pumping her hand along his shaft, Clayton was positive that he'd died and gone to heaven, but his mind was truly blown when Natalie lurched forward and took an additional three inches into her mouth. Clayton could feel the back of her throat and almost blew his load right then and there, but held back with every ounce of willpower he had.

Natalie had removed both hands from Clayton's shaft and was now, purely deep-throating his massive cock. One hand continued her own self-pleasure while she began fondling her breast with her other, she could feel herself fast-approaching her climax, so with renewed vigor, she pulled her panties to the side and dug two fingers into her moist opening and began fingering herself while sucking Clayton off. Clayton was now gripping the back of Natalie's head and thrusting into her mouth at a feverish pace, her mouth felt amazing and he was so close to finishing, but before he could, Natalie place both her hands on his hips and pushed him away while pulling her head back.

Clayton looked as though he were about to complain until Natalie stood up and turned around, bending over at the waist and sticking her ass out toward him as she seductively pushed her shorts and panties down to her ankles and stepped out of them. Turning back to face him, Clayton stood in shock as he witnessed Natalie's completely nude form. There were no words that could possibly describe how perfect she was, from her long, toned legs that connected to her wide hips and perfect hourglass figure. Her large D-cup breast with small perky nipples rose and fell softly as she breathed deeply, her gaze was lustful as she eyed him while stepping back into the running water of the shower. Clayton looked down between her legs and spotted a small patch of black pubic hair over her extremely wet opening, fluids slowly trailed down her inner thighs until the water from the shower washed it away.

"Are you just gonna stand there staring or are you gonna finish what you started?" Natalie asked with a teasing tone, but Clayton could hear the lust and anticipation in her voice. He smiled as he stepped under the water with her and cupped her cheek with one hand while sliding the other down to her hip. The water streamed down both their bodies, washing away the blood and dirt from the day, Clayton could only think of how beautiful Natalie looked as the water ran down her face and body. He captured her lips in another heated kiss before sliding his hand down to her thigh and lifting her leg up to allow himself access to her core. Bending his knees, Clayton lowered himself until the tip of his cock was just below her opening. Clayton broke the kiss and looked into Natalie's eyes, seeking her permission to take the final step. He received a quick nod before she closed her eyes tight and braced herself for his entrance.

Raising up quickly, Clayton plunged the first few inches of his member into her hot, moist folds before stopping and waiting for Natalie to adjust. After a brief minute, Natalie finally opened her eyes and locked gazes with Clayton, she pulled him into another kiss as she lowered herself until she had about nine inches of Clayton's cock inside her. Natalie moaned into Clayton's mouth as she felt his manhood fill her in ways she never thought possible. Breaking their kiss, Natalie took a deep breath before plunging herself all the way to the base of Clayton's cock.

"Oh, God!" Natalie cried while shutting her eyes tight as she felt Clayton's member push against her womb. "Holy shit, holy...oh my fuck."

"Are you okay?" Clayton asked with concern as he started pulling out until Natalie grabbed his shoulders and glared at him.

"Don't you fucking dare, Clay, if you pull out now, I swear to god, I will murder you."

Taking another moment to adjust, Natalie looked down at where she and Clayton were connected before tilting her head back, letting the water splash against her face before looking back down and releasing a shuddering breath. She slowly hooked her leg around Clayton's waist and pulled his hands down onto her ass. It was all the sign Clayton needed as he lifted her off the ground again and she hooked her legs around him while wrapping her arms around his neck. Natalie immediately began to bounce herself up and down on Clayton's cock, feeling every time that it hit her womb and moaning out in ecstasy.

Clayton gripped her ass hard as he began thrusting against her bounces, listening to her moan out his name caused him to become more aggressive as his thrusts became harder and faster. He could feel her nails digging into his shoulders as he plowed into her, feel her heavy breaths against his neck as she buried her face in his shoulder and smiled as she began biting and sucking at his exposed flesh. They continued this way for a while longer, Clayton thrusting into her as hard as he could while she alternated between moaning his name and kissing him until Clayton suddenly pulled out of her and lowered her to the ground. Confused, Natalie was about to ask why he stopped when he quickly turned her around and bent her over at the waist. Smiling in understanding and desire, Nat placed her hands against the shower wall and braced herself as Clayton lined up his cock with her entrance with one hand and grabbed her hip with the other before, with a strong thrust, he buried himself up to the base.

Natalie was so overwhelmed with pleasure that she found herself unable to even moan as Clayton began fucking her from behind as hard and fast as possible. Her breasts swung back and forth as Clayton thruster into her until she felt one of his hands leave her hip and snake around her front to grab her chest.

"Yes! Right there, Clay! Oh, FUCK!" Natalie screamed as her senses were overloaded with pleasure as Clayton hit every one of her pleasure spots. "Keep going, I'm almost there, I'm so fucking close. Harder, fuck me harder!"

Clayton released her breast and grabbed a hold of her shoulder, gritting his teeth as he began pulling her roughly into each thrust. They continued on for almost five minutes with Natalie moaning louder and louder while Clayton used every ounce of muscle he had to ram his cock inside of her.

"Come on, baby, cum for papa!" Clayton shouted as he grabbed her hips again and began slamming into her. Natalie couldn't take it anymore, she'd reached the tipping point and with one final moan, she orgasmed, covering Clayton's member in her fluids that were quickly washed away by the shower, but Clayton wasn't done yet. Pulling out, he turned Nat back around so they were facing each other again and quickly plunged himself back inside her, earning another lustful moan. As he held her up by her hips, Natalie wrapped her legs around him and leaned back against the shower wall as Clayton pressed against her. His thrusts were erratic and powerful, she knew he was close.

"Cum for me, Clay, blow your load inside me!" Natalie shouted as she wrapped her arms around Clayton's neck and smashed her lips against his. With a strong thrust, Natalie felt Clayton shoot his seed deep inside her. His hot cum felt amazing as it filled her to the brim and it felt even better as he kept thrusting inside her while cumming. Finally finished, Clayton kept his cock sheathed inside Natalie as the two breathed heavily, resting their foreheads against each other.

"That...holy shit, that was..." Clayton panted out, before Natalie finished for him.

"Amazing?"

"Yeah, that." Clayton slowly slid out of Natalie, his now flaccid member flopping out and covered in his and Nat's juices. Natalie, after being set back down on the ground, collapsed instantly due to her legs feeling weak after what Clayton did. Seeing his limp, fluid covered cock in front of her, she leaned forward and pulled his cock into her mouth, cleaning it off with her tongue and causing Clayton to let out another low moan of pleasure. Releasing his cock with an audible 'pop', Natalie looked up at the muscled Gear and held her hand up to him, silently asking for help standing. As Clayton lifter her off the ground, he turned the shower off and set Nat down softly, allowing her to lean against him for support while he grabbed her towel off the hook and helped her dry off, delivering quick kisses to her flesh as he went along her body with the towel.

Finally having dried off completely, Clayton helped Natalie into her tank top and panties before leaning her against the door and drying himself off. Natalie watched as he rubbed the towel all along his muscular frame and smiled to herself. After pulling his boxers on, Clayton opened the door before picking Natalie up bridal-style and carrying her out of the showers. Immediately upon exciting the shower room, the two Gears were greeted by a series of loud cheers aimed mostly toward Clayton while a few were directed as Nat from a significantly higher amount of Gears than had been present when they entered.

"Hell yeah, Clay! Get some!"

"Haha, Damn, girl can't even walk now!"

"Make sure you keep him on lock, Wylde!"

These were just a few of the things the two lovers heard as Clayton carried Nat to her cot and set her down gently. Both Gears were blushing heavily, but they still had the biggest grins on their faces. As Clayton stood to his full height, he turned to face the other Gears in the room.

"Alright, fuck-sticks, listen up!" The whole room quieted down as Clayton continued on. "This gorgeous woman is Natalie Wylde and she is now my girlfriend!"

A loud applause and congratulatory cheers erupted from the room after Clayton's declaration. Natalie was smiling like the biggest goof-ball on all of Sera as Clayton raised his hands to signal for the room to calm down.

"Now, I understand that she's probably the hottest, sexiest and most badass girl in the history of ever, but I want to make one thing clear. Unless she says otherwise, she is mine and I am hers, so don't be coming around trying to flirt with her, I'm looking at you, Salazar." The Gears laughed as the now named Salazar held up his hands in mock surrender. "I'll defend what's mine with my life, so if you try anything, be ready for a fight!"

Once again, the whole room erupted in a loud applause as Gears came over and congratulated the newly christened couple. Natalie, after a series of 'good catch's' and 'he's a keeper's' from the female Gears as well as a few 'treat him right's' from some of the males dug through her duffel and pulled out a pair of shorts. Pulling them on and slipping her feet into her COG boots, she grabbed her pack of cigarettes and stood up on more stable legs. Placing a hand on Clayton's shoulder, she turned him around to face her before grabbing the back of his head and pulling him down into a long, passionate kiss which earned even more hoots and hollers from the crowd.

"I'm gonna go smoke, you should get dressed so we can go eat." Clayton nodded before turning to walk towards his own bunk until Nat caught his attention once more. "After what you did, I'll even make you a sandwich!"

Clayton's smile almost stretched from ear to ear as he sprinted to his cot to get dressed, the crowd cheering the whole time.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

This was it, they'd gotten the signal from Delta and the Gears were already moving out on Rigs to where Delta had confirmed to be the Locust stronghold. Natalie was back on Betty with Dizzy driving and she wasn't alone, Clayton was with her, sitting in for his brother while he was in the hospital, along with Cole and Baird who had returned to Jacinto in the Centaur with a group of Stranded about thirty minutes before Marcus and Dom had set off the locator beacon. They'd been riding for almost 20 minutes now after being transported by KR's to the Rigs and there hadn't been a single Locust attack yet.

"Weird huh?" Clayton asked from his spot at the front of Betty.

"What do you mean?" Natalie asked from the turret.

"We're headed straight to the Locust stronghold and yet we haven't seen a single grub yet and we're only five minutes away from the drill site. It just doesn't seem right." Clayton muttered the last part as he scanned the surrounding area. Betty was in the middle of the formation, heading straight for the locator beacon so that Delta could regroup quickly.

"Them bitches are probably shaking in their boots knowing that the Cole-Train's bout to come knocking on their door!" Cole shouted out as he held up his Lancer and beat his chest.

"Haha, I know I'd be scared if you were knocking on my door, Cole." Nat laughed out.

"Shit, baby, the Cole-Train is all about beatin the baddies and tending to the ladies." Cole chuckled out. "However, the Cole-Train don't pick up women in relationships."

Natalie laughed as she continued to scan the area ahead while Clayton and Baird shook their heads at Cole's antics.

"Seriously, though. I don't like this." Baird started. "The Locust should be all over us right now, I mean, I'm not complaining or anything, an easy ride is preferable to getting shot at, but still, this just doesn't feel right."

"Maybe Dom and Marcus are causing more trouble than we think, keeping the grubs looking in instead of out." Natalie offered.

"Enough trouble to distract a whole army?" Questioned Baird. "I know they're good, but they aren't that good."

"Well shit, when you put it that way, it does make this trip seem much creepier." Cole relented as he walked to the left side of the deck and started watching the ground for any sign of E-holes. The four members of Delta quieted down as they took on a more serious tone, Baird was right, the Locust should be swarming them right now, if this was their actual stronghold. So what was keeping them away?

"Alright, Delta, this is our stop!" Dizzy called out as the rig stopped and he walked to the back to set up the Grind lifts. "Keep an eye out for grubs while I set up the lifts."

"We got your back, Dizzy." Clayton stated as he swept his Lancer across the field in front of them, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

"Alright, first lift is ready, first two step in!" Dizzy shouted over the sound of the lift mechanism settling into position.

"Ladies first." Cole offered as he bowed and gestured toward the lift.

"Such a gentleman." Natalie commented as she walked past and stepped into the Grind lift.

"Keep her safe, man." Cole whispered to Clayton as he got near him and the two bumped their Lancers together as Clayton nodded to Cole.

"No grub'll get near her." Clayton stated with determination. He stepped into the Grind lift after Nat and the lifts restraints lowered down, locking them in place. Natalie nodded to Cole and Baird as the lift doors closed and looked over to Clayton.

"You ready for the big leagues?" She asked as the Grind lift powered up.

"I've been ready, babe."

The Grind lift launched into the ground, shaking the occupants all around.

"WOOOOOOOOOOO, BABY!" Clayton shouted as the Grind lift burrowed through the ground. The ride down only lasted about two minutes until they felt the lift slam onto the ground and the restraints lifted as the doors opened. Natalie was the first to step out and was immediately greeted by the sight of Dom and Marcus.

"Hey guys, have fun without me?" Natalie asked as she and Clayton made their way over.

Dom simply glared at Natalie causing her to step back slightly before looking over at Clayton. "Who're you?"

"Clayton Carmine, Ben's older brother. Hoffman put me on Delta until Ben gets out of the hospital, though if this really is the Locust stronghold then we could end the war before he gets out." Clayton replied.

"You're damn right." Marcus growled out. "Their main stronghold is across an imulsion field, so we'll need to figure out how to cross, but we can figure that out once Cole and Baird show up."

As if on cue, the second Grind lift fell from the cavern ceiling above and landed twenty feet from the group. Once the doors opened, Cole immediately rushed out and turned behind the lift as Baird stepped out behind him and started patting him on the back.

"Come on, buddy, you're alright." Baird comforted as Cole continued to lose his last meal.

The sounds of puking could be heard coming from the two and Dom began chuckling as the others just stood and watched.

"Alright." Cole muttered out before spitting. "I'm good, let's go find Delta."

"Already found em, Cole." Baird stated as he turned around to see the rest of Delta watching the scene.

"Yeah, we saw the whole thing." Clayton muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Alright, Delta. The main building for the Locust stronghold is just past these barriers. So get ready, we're ending this now." Marcus ordered before walking toward the next gate with all of Delta following behind. As Natalie walked past Cole, she gave him a pat on the back.

"You know, I've got some motion sickness pills if you ever need them."

"Shit, coulda told me that before, baby." Cole laughed as he followed in the rear with Baird while Nat and Clayton stayed in the middle. Natalie just chuckled as she moved alongside Clayton, giving him a wide grin and a wink before watching for any Locust activity.

Five minutes later

"Holy shit, look at them grubs run!" Cole shouted as he pointed to a group of Locust that were retreating quickly. We must be doing some serious damage!"

"No, it's too far from the beacon, there must be something else going on." Marcus replied.

"What, like a civil war or something?" Clayton asked, looking to Natalie who just shrugged in response.

"I don't know, but we need to keep moving."

Ten minutes later

Delta came upon a set of stairs next to a lift with a Troika turret attached.

"Baird, Clayton and Dom, take the stairs. Cole and Wylde, you're with me on the lift, Wylde, take the gun." Marcus ordered as they all took their assigned routes while Natalie got on the Troika and covered Delta two's advance. The lift began to lower after Cole pulled a lever in the middle and both he and Marcus took cover at the edge of the lift. As the lift cleared the first floor, a door at the opposite end opened up and Locust began running out the door. Natalie, however, was already spinning up the turret and unleashing a storm of bullets upon the single opening. The grubs were forced to take cover by the sides of the door to avoid being slaughtered like the first four that tried to run through.

As Delta Two came down the stairs, Baird saw the grubs hiding behind the door and tossed a grenade into it causing some Locust to jump out of cover into Nat's sights while the others who didn't see the grenade were ripped apart by the explosion. Clayton ran to the door and checked inside, signaling that all grubs were dead, Delta Two pushed forward, down the next set of stairs as Cole pulled the lift's lever causing it to descend once more. As they cleared the second floor, Delta One saw that all the grubs had their backs turned to them and were only watching the stairway.

"Light em up, Delta!" Marcus shouted as he popped out of cover and gunned down two grubs. Natalie spun up the turret and began sweeping it along the Locust lines, catching multiple grubs unaware and finishing them off quickly. Cole chucked a grenade at a pair of Locust that had managed to get into cover and one was blown to pieces while the other was flung out of cover and left in the open for Marcus and Natalie to gun down. Delta Two rounded the corner and saw the massive carnage that Delta One had created.

"Damn, you think maybe we could take the next one?" Clayton asked as he prodded at a dead grub with the tip of his boot.

"Depends on if you can beat us there!" Natalie teased as the lift started to descend again.

"WOO! Ain't no stopping the Cole-Train, baby!"

"That's fuckin cheating!" Clayton yelled as he and Delta Two sprinted toward the staircase. As the lift cleared the final floor, Cole jumped off the lift and charged toward the Locust with his shotgun drawn, Natalie began firing the turret at any grub that tried to flank him, while Marcus gunned down any stragglers that Natalie and Cole missed. Delta Two came from the stairwell behind Cole and saw that the Locust had been massacred yet again by Delta One. Natalie was giving Delta Two a cocky smirk as she hopped down from the lift.

"It's only cause you had the turret." Baird grumbled causing Natalie and Cole to laugh while Clayton walked up and put his arm around Nat's shoulders.

"Exactly, but you are a badass." He stated as he pressed the mouth area of his helmet to the top of Natalie's head.

"Get a room you two." Baird retorted as he joined back up with Cole.

"Carmine, Wylde, stow that shit till the mission's done!" Marcus yelled causing the two Gears to separate with heavy blushes, though you could only see Natalie's. A forlorn look crossed Dom's face as he witnessed the young couple, but quickly reigned in his emotions and followed after Marcus. Natalie had seen the look pass over Dom's face and mentally noted to check with Marcus later about Dom's condition.

Ten minutes later

Natalie sprinted into cover, a hail of bullets flying over her head, Baird crouched down beside her as he blind-fired over their cover.

"Why do we keep running into ambushes?!" Baird shouted as he pulled back into cover.

"You'd think we'd be better at this sorta thing!" Replied Natalie before she chucked a grenade over her cover toward the Grinder that was suppressing them.

As the Massive grub was blown apart by the grenade, the hail of fire ceased and Marcus shouted.

"Wylde, Dom's hit! Get over here!"

"On my way, Marcus!" Natalie sprinted over to Dom, pulling various supplies from her pouches as she neared him. "Where are you hit?"

"Bastard got me in shoulder." Dom growled out as he clutched his left shoulder.

"Alright, move your hand. Let me see it." Natalie ordered while pulling out some antiseptic. Dom pulled his hand away to reveal the bullets entry wound, quickly looking the wound over, Natalie determined that the bullet was still inside his shoulder due to there being no exit wound.

"Looks like you drew the short straw, Dom. The bullet is still inside your shoulder so I'm gonna have to dig it out and I don't have any morphine." Natalie pulled out a tightly rolled up piece of cardboard about three inches long and half an inch wide. "Bite down on this, cause this is gonna hurt."

Dom bit down on the offered cardboard before Natalie pulled out a long pair of tweezers.

"Marcus, Cole, hold him down." Natalie ordered, watching as the two Gears grabbed a firm hold of Dom and kept him in place. "Sorry, Dom."

Natalie stuck the tweezers into the bullet hole, causing Dom to growl in pain around the cardboard roll. His entire body tensed as he tried to endure the pain. Natalie maneuvered the tweezers around inside the bullet hole, searching for the foreign object all the while watching Dom's face, using his reactions to judge rather or not she was causing him too much pain. Finally she felt the tweezers grab a hold of the bullet and as quickly as was safe, she pulled the chunk of metal out of Dom's shoulder.

"There's the little fucker." Natalie exclaimed as she held the bullet up into the light, ensuring that the majority of the round had come out. "Looks like there's a few pieces still in there, but it shouldn't cause you any trouble, just be sure to get to an actual hospital when you get the chance."

"Thanks, Nat." Dom said before hissing as Natalie began pouring the disinfectant onto his wound. "I take it back, fuck you."

"Baby." Nat joked as she put the bottle and tweezers away and began wrapping his shoulder.

Ten minutes later

"Die for papa, grubs!" Clayton shouted as he shot a grub off a Reaver with his Longshot before it could make it to the cable-car they were all in.

"It concerns me that you shouted something similar while we were in the shower!" Natalie teased as she unloaded her Lancer into the same incoming Reaver causing it to fall from the sky.

"Really not the place for that, Wylde!" Marcus shouted as he fired his Boomshot at another Reaver, blowing it to pieces along with its riders.

"All I'm saying is that it's weird!" Natalie retorted as she reloaded her Lancer before drawing her own Longshot that she'd picked up along the way. "I mean, who shouts something to the woman they're railing that's similar to what they say to grubs!"

"Maybe he was hate-fucking you?!" Dom called out while blasting a Reaver in the underbelly with his Gnasher as it flew over their cable-car. Natalie noticed that Dom's mood had improved significantly while he was killing Locust and she wasn't going to complain about it, she'd still ask Marcus about it later though.

"With as much as he was moaning, I doubt it!" Natalie replied.

"Can we please not talk about this right now?!" Clayton pleaded after shooting a Reaver in its eye, causing it to drop before exploding.

Ten minutes later

"It's like their lining up to die!" Dom shouted as he leaned out of cover on the stairwell and blasted another Theron Guard with his Gnasher.

"Throwing frag!" Baird called before tossing a grenade down the stairs and blasting apart a group of Guards before charging forward with the rest of Delta.

"Theron with a Torque Bow!" Natalie warned as she saw a Guard lean out of cover with the telltale glowing tip of an explosive bow.

"I got him!" Clayton shouted before blasting its head off with his Boltok.

"Move forward, Delta!" Marcus shouted as he kicked a Theron over the edge of the stairs and hearing it scream as it fell to its death.

Ten minutes later

"Check this out." Baird said as he looked at a monitor with a picture of Jacinto and the columns that supported it. "Looks like what the queen's been yapping about."

"So we know they're trying to sink Jacinto, but why would they do that?" Dom asked, looking good to Marcus.

"Because they're desperate." Marcus stated. "All this time we never realized that. Jack, plug in to the terminal and see what you can find."

As the floating bot de-cloaked itself and flew over to a terminal, the queen's voice came over the loudspeakers again.

"We cannot allow the Lambent to pollute the surface. We must bury their infection here! The world is rightfully ours!"

Cole and Baird made their way over to one of the terminals and as Baird began tinkering with the hardware, Cole grabbed the microphone that was attached and began shouting.

"Delta squad is in yo house, bitch! You hear that shit? You grub-ass bitches are going down, way down! Dead down! So down yo ass ain't gonna know which way is up! Yo asses gonna be crying to yo skank-ass queen, 'oh mommy, don't let the bad man hurt us'. FUCK YOU! We gonna whoop yo momma's ass!"

Natalie quickly ran up and grabbed the mic from Cole, taking a deep breath in preparation for her own speech.

"That's right, fuck you, ya dirty cunts! We already killed all your friends, your big-ass worm and when we find your queen, I'm gonna stick my boot so far up her ass, she'll be tasting the grub blood on my heel! So try and fight us! I fucking dare you, I double dare you. You think you got what it takes to stand against us! HAH! Y'all ain't shit! This is our house now, bitch!"

Baird ripped the wires out of the machine before turning around and holding his arms out wide.

"There ya go, one muzzled queen." Baird quickly turned around to Cole and Nat. "Not you guys, her, you guys were great. Loved your speeches, especially with the whole bitch-ass and cunt things. Very good, very great."

Nat and Cole simply shared a look before smiling and walking after Baird. Marcus turned from the little show that Cole and Nat had provided and looked towards Jack.

"Jack, anything?"

After giving a few beeps, a voice began to play over the terminal speakers.

"There appears to be only one way to end this war." The voice started. "But I fear the cost may be too great."

"Marcus, is that who I think it is?" Dom asked after recognizing the voice.

"I think so." Was the only response form Marcus.

"If we were to sink Jacinto, it would flood the Hollow with seawater. Nothing below the surface would survive. We could end the war today, but only if we sacrifice our last possible refuge."

All of Delta gathered around the terminal when Baird tapped on Dom's shoulder and asked.

"Who's that talking?"

"Adam Fenix." Was Dom's short reply.

"My father." Marcus added.

"But what's your father doing in the Locust computers?" Baird asked in confusion.

"We'll figure that out later." Marcus answered. "Look, my father and the Locust queen are saying the same thing, it's just a matter of timing. We need to sink Jacinto before the Locust leave, not after."

"Can we even do that?" Dom asked incredulously.

"Marcus, I know it's your father, but listen to what you're saying." Baird argued.

"Consider it a back-up plan if we can't get to the queen. Jack, see if you can upload the data to Command, tell em we found another way to put the Locust down for good." Marcus began to walk off before he looked over his shoulder. "Keep moving, Delta."

"Well, hopefully they'll give us time to pack." Natalie added as they all began heading deeper into the Locust stronghold.

Ten minutes later

"Dom, Wylde and Baird take left. Carmine and Cole, with me on the right." Marcus ordered before the two groups charged off on opposite sides of the second floor. The two groups advanced quickly, until Marcus, with Delta One, began taking fire.

"Could use some help over here!" Clayton shouted as two Grinders appeared before them along with six grubs.

"Wylde, help em out!" Dom shouted as Natalie ran to the edge and pulled out her Longshot. Resting the barrel along the railing, she lined up her shot and blasted a hole in the head of the first Grinder, causing its head to explode. She was about to line up her second shot when Baird suddenly yelled out.

"MAULER!"

Turning back to face the new threat, Natalie had to quickly dive backwards to avoid the massive flail that smashed into the ground where she'd previously been crouched. Dom and Baird began firing at the Mauler, but it extended its shield and covered behind it, deflecting most of their bullets.

"Someone throw a grenade!" Dom shouted as he dove away from the Mauler's flail.

"I'm out!" Baird shouted while switching to his Gnasher and back-peddling while firing.

"Fuck! Focus on its feet!" Natalie shouted as she drew her Lancer and began unloading onto the Mauler's exposed feet with Dom and Baird joining in. The Mauler eventually fell onto its stomach when their combined fire severed its left leg at the knee. Switching back to her Longshot, Natalie quickly aimed back over to Delta One's position and sighted in, but she only saw one grub still alive and it was currently being strangled by Clayton. Dom walked over to the downed Mauler and jammed the barrel of his Gnasher into the things face before pulling the trigger and spraying its brains all over the ground.

"Regroup, Delta." Marcus called out over the TAC/COM.

Ten minutes later

"Okay, seriously." Natalie stated as she crushed a grub's head beneath her boot. "How many fucking ambushes are we gonna walk into, cause this is getting pretty ridiculous."

"Well, if I had to take a guess, I'd say that the queen is gonna be right through that door." Baird pointed toward a massive double door with intricate detailing all over it. "And my guesses are pretty good."

"Let's get this over with." Marcus growled out as he approached the door along with Delta. As they made their way to the door, Natalie looked down at the floor, seeing that a square platform was separated from the rest of the floor.

"Woah, hold up guys." Delta turned to face her as she pointed at the floor. "I don't know about you, but this just screams trapdoor, now I'm all up for another fight, but how about we walk around and skip this one, just this once."

"Gonna have to take the lady's side on this one, I'm getting tired of all the ambushes." Cole agreed as he began walking around the platform.

"Yeah, I've had enough traps for one day." Dom stated as he followed along with Baird and Marcus.

"Oh, come on! We can take em!" Clayton cheered as he followed Natalie around the side. Delta made their way around to the double doors and proceeded to kick them open. Marcus and Dom lead the way with Clayton and Natalie on their right and Baird and Cole on their left. They entered what could only be described as a throne room, there were six massive pillars stretching all the way to the ceiling and at the very front, sat a large throne with the Locust queen sitting comfortably as she watched the Gears approach. The grub that had attacked Natalie and Ben aboard the Rig was standing to her right.

"Wait, that's the queen?" Cole asked as he got a clear look at the queen sitting on the throne. "I thought she was supposed to be butt-ass ugly."

"Oh hey, it's the grub whose arm I cut off!" Natalie stated loudly. "How's that going for ya, buddy?"

The grub in question let out a low hiss as it stared down the female that had taken its arm.

"So you're the one Skorge has been referring to." The Locust queen said calmly as she stood up from her throne. "I must admit, when he returned without his arm, I was rather surprised to hear that a lowly Gear such as yourself had managed to inflict such a grievous wound upon him."

"Aww, he talks about me? That's so sweet." Natalie mocked as she reloaded her Lancer.

"You're the first humans to ever desecrate this palace with your presence." The queen stated while gesturing to the surrounding area. "And I assure you, you'll most certainly be the last."

"If you plan on flooding the Hollow then I guess we would be the last." Marcus responded.

"Yes, though you killed the Riftworm, as your female so kindly pointed out earlier, there are still ways for us to sink Jacinto. You'll perish, along with the Lambent."

"Not if we sink it first." Marcus growled out. Natalie was looking around the massive room, not paying much attention to what was being said, though she could hear the dangerous tone in Marcus' voice.

"Ahh yes, Skorge informed me of your plan to sink Jacinto before us, I'm afraid it won't work." The queen's smug tone was really starting to annoy Nat.

"Don't be so sure." Said Marcus defiantly.

"Oh, but I am. We already have an army on route to Jacinto to prevent that fr-" the queen was cut off as Natalie interrupted her.

"Alright, your cocky attitude has officially pissed me off." Natalie held her Lancer with her left hand while aiming the Boltok that she'd taken from Clayton while the queen and Marcus were talking. Firing off two quick shots, the first missed her by inches, but the second shot smashed into her right shoulder, blowing the appendage off in a shower a blood.

"AHHHH!" The queen screamed as she clutched her bloody mess of a shoulder. "SKORGE, KILL THEM!"

The queen took off out of a side door and quickly disappeared from sight while Skorge instantly leapt at Natalie, bringing his now one handed chainsaw down on her. Natalie quickly dove to the side to avoid the attack as the rest of Delta scattered.

"Cole, Baird and Clayton, go after the queen!" Marcus shouted as he went to cover Natalie who was under constant pressure from Skorge. Natalie dodged the sweep of Skorge's chainsaw staff, diving backwards to try and gain some distance. Marcus and Dom immediately began firing once their medic was clear from their lines of fire. Skorge quickly used his powerful legs to leap high into the air, avoiding the fire from Delta One and disappearing from sight.

"Form up, Delta!" Marcus shouted, causing Natalie and Dom to run towards him as they all stood back to back, covering every angle they thought an attack could come from. The sounds of a chainsaw drew all their attention above them.

"Shit! SCATTER!" Dom shouted as they all dove out of the way as a massive stalagmite fell from the ceiling and smashed into the ground where they'd just been. Skorge reappeared and instantly went after Nat, screeching as he charged her and bringing his chainsaw in a downward arc toward the medic that was still recovering from her dive. Rolling onto her back at the sound of the chainsaw, Natalie rolled to the right, avoiding the whirring teeth that spelled certain doom for her before drawing her Lancer in mid-roll.

"Tickers!" Marcus warned as he and Dom began firing at the swarm of Tickers that had crawled out of the numerous vents around the room. No Tickers came near Natalie as Skorge continued his assault on her prone form, Nat continually parried or blocked his attacks with her own chainsaw.

"Guys, this thing has a serious hate-boner for me and I really don't like it!" Natalie shouted as she parried Skorge's attack to her left before kicking out and catching the grub in the gut, pushing him away and allowing her to scramble to her feet. She barely had enough time to pull her Lancer up to catch the chainsaw of Skorge and the two entered into a deadly duel where both struggled for dominance. Skorge released a powerful screech, causing Natalie to cringe in pain, but she still held her Lancer against his blade.

"Wylde, break contact!" Marcus shouted.

"Easier said than done, Marcus!" Natalie replied before Skorge forced her Lancer up and Spartan-kicked her in the stomach, launching her about ten feet away. She landed on her back with a grunt of pain, struggling to regain the breath that was forcefully expelled from her lungs. Skorge leapt at her prone from and was about to bring down his chainsaw, but fortunately, Dom and Marcus had managed to clear out the Tickers and began firing on the one-armed grub.

"RAAAAAHHHHH!" Skorge screeched before jumping towards Marcus and slamming his shoulder into Delta's leader and sending him back into Dom. The impact sent both Dom and Marcus tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Turning back to the still recovering woman, Skorge began walking over to her. Natalie had turned over onto her stomach and was trying to drag herself to her Lancer that she'd lost when she'd been kicked. Hearing the approaching footsteps, Natalie rolled over onto her back and tried to draw her pistol, but Skorge smacked the weapon away and stomped his foot down onto Natalie's chest.

Her armor strained against the pressure being pressed down onto it and Natalie struggled with everything she had to get the grub off her, but Skorge's strength was just too much for her. Looking over, she saw that another wave of Tickers had begun to swarm Dom and Marcus along with a few Theron Guards that had entered the throne room and we're doing a damn good job of keeping her teammates busy. Another forceful stomp on her chest brought her attention back to her current situation. Skorge was stomping down on her chest and the strength of him was proving to be too much for her armor to handle.

With one final stomp, Skorge broke through her armor and a sickening crack could be heard as Natalie's sternum was broken. Blood spilled from her mouth as she let out a scream of pain, Skorge sheathed his chainsaw on his back before leaning down and lifting Natalie into the air by her throat, walking toward one of the large pillars that adorned the room. She began to beat on his arm, trying desperately to free herself, but she didn't even cause him to loosen his grip. Her vision began fading as her airway was cut off and her muscles grew weak. As her vision faded out, the pressure on her throat disappeared and she dropped to the floor in a crumpled mess, unconscious, but alive.

"Wylde!" Marcus shouted after Dom had thrown his combat knife into the shoulder of Skorge, freeing Natalie from his grasp. "Delta-Two, get back to the throne room! Wylde is down and we're being overrun!"

"We're already on our way, the queen escaped on a Reaver, we'll be there in less than a minute!" Baird replied back as Marcus smashed the head of a grub in with his Gnasher.

"Marcus, we're cut off!" Dom shouted causing Marcus to look around and see that they were surrounded on all sides by grubs and Tickers with no chance of getting to Natalie.

"FUCK, WYLDE!" Marcus yelled while blasting another grub in the chest with his shotgun, trying to break through the Locust to aid their medic. Skorge, having only one arm, brought his shoulder up and bit down on the hilt of the knife before ripping it out and spitting it away. Looking back at the unmoving form of the woman, Skorge kicked her over onto her back before lifting his foot up to crush her head.

"HEADS UP, FUCK-FACE!" Skorge's head snapped to the side, right as a blur of silver and blue slammed into him and tackled him to the ground. Clayton was now straddling him and brought his fist back quickly before bringing it down into Skorge's face with every ounce of strength he could muster. The first punch bounced Skorge's head off the ground beneath him and into the second punch. Clayton continued to beat the grub's face, shouting profanities as he did it. The only thing he could think of was how this piece of shit had hurt the woman he called a friend, the woman who saved his brother, the woman he loved and he was pissed.

Skorge attempted to fight the massive Gear off, but the powerful blows to his head had disoriented him and he was unable to put up much resistance. As the blows kept coming, Skorge's body went limp, but Clayton didn't let up, he continued to pummel him until his head turned into a pile of mush. Cole had gone to assist Dom and Marcus, while Baird rushed over and began checking over Natalie, trying to bring her back to consciousness. Clayton knew he wouldn't be any help with the medical crap, but he didn't want to let Nat out of his sights. His mind was made up for him, however, when Baird looked up at him and pointed towards the grubs that were still causing trouble.

"Get the fuck over there and kill them! First-aid is easier when people aren't shooting at you!"

Nodding his head, Clayton stood up from the corpse of Skorge while pulling his Lancer off his back and charging into the battle. He saw nothing but red as he bashed, sawed and gunned down anything that got in his way. Clayton became a whirlwind of death as he massacred the Locust forces in his blind rage, only stopping when Marcus placed a hand on his shoulder and told him it was over. Placing his Lancer on his back, Clayton rushed over to Natalie, where Baird had just finished checking her over and was in the process of strapping her chest armor back on.

"How is she?" Marcus asked, jogging over with Dom and Cole.

"Not good, Marcus. She's got major internal bleeding on top of three broken ribs and a broken sternum. She needs to get to a hospital ASAP or we're gonna lose her." Baird informed them as he finished clasping her armor back on and stood up. "There are a few Reavers back where the queen escaped, if we used one of them, we might be able to get her back to Jacinto before she bleeds out."

Clayton was already picking Natalie up bridal-style and jogging in the direction of the Reaver pens.

"Let's move, Delta." Marcus ordered before getting on the TAC/COM. "Control, Delta, do you read? I say again, Control, Delta, do you copy?"

"We're too deep for radios to work, we need to get to the surface." Baird stated as Delta followed after Carmine to the Reaver pens.

"Shit, we'll need to inform any Gears along the way to fall back from the Hollow on our way out then." Marcus replied as they crossed a large bridge. As Delta crossed to the other side, Clayton was already at one of the Reavers and was securing Natalie's form to the gunner seat.

"Alright, mount up, Delta. Carmine, stay between us and keep Wylde safe. Understood?" Marcus ordered as he took the gunner seat on the Reaver Cole was piloting.

"Understood, Fenix." Was the only response as Clayton mounted the pilot's seat of the Reaver.


End file.
